Editorial for August 14 2025
In an more and more fractured world, Canada should recalibrate its method to worldwide commerce. The time has come to show towards a extra unbiased and strategic financial coverage, one that features deepened ties with China and India, two of the biggest and most dynamic economies on the planet.
Regardless of frequent portrayals on the contrary, China has by no means posed a direct menace to Canada, not militarily, and never via commerce. Like each sovereign nation, China acts in its personal curiosity. So does the US. So does Canada. India, in its insurance policies and its posture, is way the identical. But lately, Canada’s diplomatic habits has typically appeared dictated extra by Washington than by Ottawa’s personal priorities.
The arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the Chief Monetary Officer of Huawei, on the request of the US, was a obtrusive instance. That call, legally questionable and diplomatically reckless, did immense harm to Canada’s relationship with China. It broadcast to the world that Canada was ready to place its sovereignty on maintain for the sake of appeasing its southern neighbour. The repercussions had been predictable and dear.
Equally, tensions with India have worsened, not due to financial incompatibility however because of political missteps and an obvious disregard for the complexity of bilateral relations. Now, as U.S. tariffs tighten round Canadian exports and threats of financial punishment develop louder, the very voices that when urged alignment with the Individuals are advising commerce with the very nations we pushed away.
It’s bitter irony. Canada aligned itself with an influence that more and more treats its northern neighbour much less as a accomplice and extra as a dependent. Tariffs on metal, softwood lumber, dairy, and different sectors have proven how unreliable this commerce relationship has change into. In the meantime, China and India have moved on, securing offers with different world companions whereas Canada debates its place on the world stage.
The reality is, we should always have been diversifying all alongside. Commerce just isn’t about loyalty; it’s about mutual profit. China and India are huge markets with rising shopper bases, thriving center courses, and a starvation for assets and expertise that Canada is properly positioned to provide. In return, they provide manufactured items, funding, and entry to networks throughout Asia, Africa, and past.
It isn’t too late to reset. However this time, Canada should method these relationships with respect and readability. Meaning coping with China and India not as threats or strategic pawns however as equals in an more and more multipolar world. It additionally means abandoning the residue of colonial conceitedness and the white supremacist assumptions which have too typically tainted Canada’s method to the World South.
The concept that Canada is someway an ethical arbiter on the world stage has worn skinny. If we want to be revered, we should behave with consistency and precept. That features standing agency in our sovereignty and selecting our commerce companions primarily based on our personal nationwide curiosity, not on cues from one other nation’s agenda.
Survival is now at stake. Canada should commerce with any nation prepared to do trustworthy enterprise. And this time, we should get it proper.
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