CANZUK and Canada – a shift to the Commonwealth from China

Over the past three months, Canada has experienced its greatest crisis since the Second World War. The novel coronavirus has challenged every facet of the country. It has also led to serious concerns about Canada’s dealings with China.

As the nation locked down, businesses temporarily shuttered and unemployment soared, the Trudeau Liberal government continued to foster its often maligned relationship with the Asian superpower.  

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stayed mostly mum on China’s handling of the pandemic, some of his most senior cabinet ministers have been more than willing to posture for the Chinese government.

“There is no indication that the data that came out of China in terms of their infection rate and their death rate was falsified in any way,” said Canada’s health minister Patty Hajdu in a briefing on April 2, 2020, while in the same breath suggesting journalists were helping to fuel misinformation and conspiracy theories about China.

But this is merely the tip of the iceberg where Canada-China relations are concerned.

Since December 2018, Canadian nationals Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have languished in a Chinese jail with anemic attempts by the Trudeau Liberals at securing their release.

Chinese state-directed telecomm Huawei has lobbied for access to Canada’s 5G network, with the federal government shirking a formal decision and endangering Canada’s involvement in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

Hong Kong is fighting desperately to maintain autonomy, while Trudeau has offered nothing more than bland platitudes and dodged questions about pro-democracy protesters. 

For the Trudeau Liberals, any vigorous defense or lack of outright rebuke of China is passé as we transition into a post-coronavirus world. A global economic and geopolitical realignment is imminent and Canada’s reliance on China is wholly unsustainable.

Now more than ever Canada needs to dramatically shift away from coddling ties with China and instead look to its strongest allies and fellow Commonwealth countries to grow its economic and political future.

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom – colloquially known as CANZUK –is a decades-old concept that would lead to free trade and freedom of movement between Britain and three of its former colonies.

Binding this union is a shared sovereign as head of state, a common democratic system and similar legal systems, as well as collective cultural, diplomatic and military ties. And the timing of CANZUK could not be better, particularly as the UK is seeking to galvanize new trade deals in the wake of its storied exit from the European Union.

The CANZUK alliance is touted by numerous politicians in Britain and Canada, including Canadian Conservative leadership candidate Erin O’Toole who has been advocating the idea in conservative circles for years and has promised to implement the plan as party leader.

With a Conservative Party leadership vote set for August and momentum growing for O’Toole’s campaign, putting a CANZUK policy into action will be critical to the party’s success – especially with another general election looming. If anything, CANZUK is a sign of momentum and modernization in a party that is often criticized for its tired and antiquated ideas.

CANZUK could also help bolster Canada’s agriculture sector and its trade with the UK as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is no longer relevant to Britain in a post-Brexit world.

Over the past two years, Canada’s agricultural exports to the EU have decreased upwards of 15 per cent due to demanding regulatory barriers. Meanwhile, Britain continues to import between 20 to 50 per cent of key dietary staples such as beef, poultry and pork. Room to grow in the UK market clearly exists and Canada’s trusted meat exports could easily fill this space. 

With a new decade upon us and Canada slowly shifting into post-coronavirus recovery mode, this is the ideal occasion to pivot Canada’s foreign and economic policy from heavily favouring countries like China to those nations we have built some of our strongest ties and fought should-to-shoulder with in the world’s greatest battles.

CANZUK is just good policy and the growing political interest on both sides of the Atlantic is a show of optimism that perhaps we can finally make this alliance a reality. 

- Shanna Schulhauser

Guest writer for Conservatives for CANZUK

“Shanna Schulhauser is a communications director, spokesperson and a former Conservative Party of Canada nomination candidate based in Regina, Saskatchewan. ”