With more economic clout comes more responsibility. And China is failing
When SARS hit in 2003, China was nowhere near the economic powerhouse it is today. Now, if something happens to China, the entire world is affected and the food sector is not immune. The coronavirus outbreak is proving that. Even though the outbreak is starting to slow, the economic damage will easily surpass that of…
Though any deaths from a fast-spreading new disease can be frightening, panic isn’t justified. Most cases are mild and of short duration
I led a trade delegation in Guangdong, China, in December 2002. Business and life carried on as usual even though a new disease, SARS, had begun infecting and killing people in the province a month earlier. As visiting Canadians, we weren’t worried at all because we knew absolutely nothing about the epidemic and had never…
Chinese President Xi Jinping has concocted a devious plan to revise the Bible to make it more in line with his country’s totalitarian ideology
Imagine this hypothetical scenario: A world leader decides they’re going to arbitrarily change the text of an historically important religious document to suit their needs. Some people might complain about this decision in private, but the world leader is far too powerful to either publicly criticize or condemn. So these changes are made in short order…
From 5G concerns internally to military spending on equipment to contributions to NATO, Canada falls far short of pulling its weight
“Canada needs to be in a position to defend itself and defend its values,” U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien told delegates at the Halifax International Security Summit recently. He urged Canada to keep its NATO commitments and increase defence spending. He also warned that Chinese company Huawei must be shut out of building 5G…
By supporting cherished freedom of expression, Silver may have cost the league billions of dollars. It's a rare and welcome example of standing true to your principles
What more do people want from National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver? It seems nearly everyone – from the far right of the political spectrum to the far left – is upset with the NBA’s response to China’s hissy fit over Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's support of Hong Kong protesters. Just days before…
The rule of law and its protection of property form the bedrock of economic freedom, but pressures from mainland China put those attributes in peril
By James Gwartney and Fred McMahon The Fraser Institute In the Fraser Institute’s latest Economic Freedom of the World ranking, Hong Kong again tops the list as the world’s freest economy. It has occupied this position almost without exception through the past half century – but will it remain there? The foundation for Hong Kong’s…
Populism some call it, but the consequence in many regions around the world has been a slippage into autocracy
In 1972, Mitchell Sharp, Canadian secretary of state for external affairs, famously penned his Third Option doctrine. It was not exactly anti-American but it was American-anxious. The idea was to reduce Canada’s vulnerability to swings in mood and trade from the United States by diversifying our economic, cultural and political relations, especially toward rising powers…
Next year the Province of Manitoba will celebrate its 150th anniversary of the founding of the Province.
Next year, 2020, will be celebrated by the Province of Manitoba as the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Province. How will we, in Portage la Prairie, acknowledge this? Check the latest Statistics Canada census results (2016). Portage la Prairie had 12, 949 folks in the reporting boundary of the municipality. Of this total,…
China has played Canada in impressive fashion over the last six months and the meat ban is a masterful stroke
Canada is losing the food safety optics game against China. While Canada has demonstrated many times that its food safety record is outstanding – in fact, one of the best in the world – none of it matters now. Since Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018 on…
Since we’re in an economic and moral conflict with China, why not do the entirely virtuous thing and withdraw our recognition of Beijing?
In 1970, Pierre Trudeau’s Canadian government cut diplomatic ties with one government claiming to rule China and recognized another. It’s time to reverse that decision. Out went a longtime ally, the quasi-democratic Republic of China, based on the island of Taiwan, and in came the nasty tyranny known as the People’s Republic of China under…