Trudeau feeling heat over China comments
Bid to justify remarks falls flat
OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has again been forced to explain himself after appearing to praise China’s form of government during a controversial “ladies’ night” event this week.
Trudeau previously had to clarify comments about legalizing marijuana and after saying the fact Quebec has 24 seats in the Senate as compared to six each for Alberta and British Columbia was “to our advantage.”
But Conservatives and New Democrats wasted no time Friday holding up his China comments as proof the Liberal leader is not ready to become prime minister.
The comments were made during a $250-a-head, women’s-only fundraiser in Toronto on Thursday night that itself had already prompted some amount of controversy thanks to an online advertisement some said was disrespectful to women.
During the event itself, Trudeau was asked which country’s government Trudeau admired the most.
“There is a level of admiration I actually have for China, he said. “Their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say we need to go green … we need to start investing in solar.”
Trudeau, who has long preached the need to end divisive and cynical politics, then took a shot at Prime Minister Stephen Harper, saying Harper “must dream about having a dictatorship where you can do whatever you wanted.”
Trudeau took to Twitter on Friday to explain his remarks, saying that his point about China was that Canada “is up against big countries (China, for one) that can address some major issues quickly.”
“Canada is the best country in the world. I would never trade our freedoms. But countries we compete with play by different rules. That’s why we need to work together to address big issues and that’s why I’m focused on the (real priorities) of Canadians.”
But Conservatives and New Democrats were unimpressed.
“He was asked which form of government he admired most,” said Government House Leader Peter Van Loan. “Choosing a communist dictatorship says a lot about him.” Trudeau’s father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, was sometimes accused of being soft on communism because of his efforts to build stronger ties with China and Cuba. Canada was one of the first western countries to recognize the Communist government in China in 1970, and one of the first to open an embassy in Beijing.
The Harper government has also made strengthening trade ties with China a key priority, despite that country’s human rights record. Despite this, Van Loan raised the allegations that used to be levelled at Trudeau’s father, saying: “I’d say the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”
NDP assistant foreign affairs critic Helene Laverdiere said Trudeau’s comments showed a lack of understanding about the situation in China.
“I have to confess that I was really taken aback when I heard that,” she said. “He was asked a very simple question. And he managed in the next few minutes to show both his lack of experience and fundamentally his lack of judgment.”
During the event, the Liberal leader also cited Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon as the administrations he most admired because they operate “without political parties, but around consensus.”