The cultivation of narrow domestic vote banks in a highly multicultural democracy like Canada is vital for electoral survival, despite its inevitable consequences for the conduct of foreign policy.
JOE ADAM GEORGE
DECEMBER 21, 2020
This self-inflicted diplomatic fiasco is a stark reminder of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government’s bumbling foreign policy, and roiling global allies by virtue-signalling and playing appeasement politics has been a consistent hallmark of the Liberals, writes Joe Adam George. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
In an unusual departure from convention and good diplomatic practice for a head of government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wittingly waded into a high-profile domestic crisis of longtime ally, India, where thousands of farmers—many of whom are Sikhs—have converged on the capital city of New Delhi for more than three weeks and regularly clashed with the police while protesting new agricultural laws that they say could destroy their already modest livelihoods.
Speaking virtually to members of the Indian diaspora in Canada to commemorate the 551st birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, Trudeau called the clashes “concerning” and assured Canada would “always be there to defend the rights of peaceful protest.”
Needless to say, the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, did not take these comments lightly and, in a major diplomatic offensive, the Indian foreign ministry summoned Canada’s high commissioner to India, Nadir Patel, and warned “comments by the Canadian prime minister, some cabinet ministers, and Members of Parliament on issues relating to Indian farmers constitute an unacceptable interference” in their internal affairs. In another clear sign of disapproval, New Delhi boycotted the Ministerial Co-ordination Group of COVID-19 (MCGC) meetings chaired by Foreign Minister François-Phillippe Champagne.
This self-inflicted diplomatic fiasco is a stark reminder of the Trudeau government’s bumbling foreign policy. Roiling global allies by virtue-signalling and playing appeasement politics has been a consistent hallmark of the Liberals. In India’s case, Trudeau’s remarks on alleged human rights abuses committed by the Modi government during the farmers’ agitation is dipped in hypocrisy when he, himself, has broken promises to provide Indigenous people with access to clean drinking water.
The recent terror attacks in France is another case in point. Trudeau waited more than a week after the Oct. 16 beheading of a French school teacher before expressing solidarity with France, a major ally and fellow NATO member. Even then, to appease Canadian Muslims, who form a crucial voter base of the Liberal Party, he hedged his condemnation by stressing that free speech has its limits.
That balancing domestic statecraft takes precedence over the pursuit of national interests abroad is not lost on the Trudeau government, whose foreign policy strategies are as ambiguous as its COVID-19 vaccine distribution plans. Mind you though, Trudeau’s obsession with vote bank politics is not without good reason.
The cultivation of narrow domestic vote banks in a highly multicultural democracy like Canada is vital for electoral survival despite its inevitable consequences for the conduct of foreign policy—which is why, despite their frosty relations with New Delhi, Indian-Canadian votes remain highly sought after by Trudeau and the Liberal Party.
Although New Delhi-Ottawa relations have been at an ebb since Trudeau’s nightmare trip to India in 2018, Canada needs to realize that maintaining cordial ties with India is in its best interests, especially when both countries are struggling to put up with an increasingly aggressive China. Besides, Ottawa’s national security interests are closely intertwined with those of New Delhi’s, particularly when it comes to combating radical Islamic and Khalistani terrorist threats.
It is a pity that Canada’s vote bank politics have beached a relationship that showed a lot of promise just before Trudeau’s election in 2015, when Modi became India’s first prime minister in 40 years to visit Canada. During that trip, Modi’s camaraderie with Trudeau’s predecessor, Stephen Harper, resulted in the unveiling of a vision for strategic partnership that was to build on the many common interests between the two countries, particularly in the areas of energy, technology, trade, and investment. Time will tell whether Trudeau and his team will take a leaf out of Harper’s diplomacy playbook and show the same political desire and dexterity to navigate this challenging situation and put Canada’s ties with India back on track.
Joe Adam George is a foreign affairs research intern with the Washington, D.C.-based policy think tank, Hudson Institute, a communications consultant, and a human rights activist. He lives in Toronto.
The story was first published by The Hill Times
https://www.hilltimes.com/2020/12/21/trudeaus-vote-bank-antics-are-hurting-canada-india-relations-yet-again/276519