We mustn't let fear of China determine our relationship with Taiwan
According to recent news reports, a delegation of eight Canadian MPs and senators from the Canada-Taiwan Friendship Group and a parliamentary trade committee are planning to visit Taiwan as early as October. Although such visits are not unusual, this time around the announcement has attracted more attention than usual. This is largely due to China’s…
The first problem with ESG is the lack of firm, objective, and uniform standards, criteria and targets
The adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards by institutional investors is ultimately a form of woke and green social credit scoring for corporations. It is meant to cajole, if not compel, investible companies to adhere to rigid rules and criteria established by investors or outside entities, such as consultants, to satisfy so-called climate…
Free nations must devote more resources to defence. Denialism and appeasement deliver death and destruction
On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. East Germans streamed from communist East Berlin into democratic West Berlin. At the 1991 royal review of the Royal Observer Corps (ROC), Queen Elizabeth II announced “the end of the Cold War.” Amid talk of a peace dividend in 1995, the ROC, vital to Britain’s home defence,…
But it could turn out to be the wisest approach to follow
Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable Dwight Eisenhower I was recently invited to present my views on Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy in discussion with Asian ambassadors in Ottawa. I noted that it’s better not to hold one’s breath waiting for a government policy document. That’s why Canada’s preferred foreign policy approach in normal times is…
Ottawa’s non-existent profile in Indo-Pacific affairs a cause for concern and disappointment
If Canada has pretensions to being an Indo-Pacific power, then it has a difficult image problem to overcome – not in terms of its national reputation as a constructive and valued member of the international community, which are “a given,” but in terms of its “presence” and “engagement” with this pivotal region. While it is…
Key allies concerned about where Canada stands on China and Russia
By Matthew Bondy and Jeffrey Collins When Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom announced their new “AUKUS” defence and security pact in September 2021, it took Canada by surprise. Though Canada joined those nations and New Zealand as members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing club that traces back to the Anglo-American alliance in…
If this is the best the Americans can do to counter China, then Canada has to look elsewhere
The announcement on Victoria Day of the beginning of talks for countries to join the U.S. Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, widely covered in the U.S. and Asia, was mentioned in Canada only to note that we weren’t invited. That turns out to be the least important piece of news. The new initiative, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework…
And the U.S. is getting ready to cave in
With crude oil fortunes on an upswing, Saudi Arabia – the world’s largest crude producer – is playing its cards very well. The crude oil markets have been transformed, with prices starting in 2022 at US$75.69 and now trading at around US$115 a barrel. That’s a gain of just over 50 per cent so far…
Its largest baby formula plant ships all its products to China
Parents of toddlers are concerned about baby formula shortages due to a combination of factors. A major recall in the United States affecting the top manufacturer of baby formula, coupled with supply chain challenges, has made things difficult for parents. In the U.S., some parents are driving hours just to get the right product for…
More than 100 million people will soon experience either famine or hunger
Food supply chain hangovers due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have resulted in questions about the global nature of our food systems. Some suggest we need to deglobalize and refocus our energy on making most economies around the world food sovereign, including Canada’s. Given what the world is…
'Evil' is back in rhetorical style, at least on a selective basis. Actual evil, of course, never went away
Evil was a very real concept when I was a child. Orthodox Catholic opinion in the Ireland I grew up in believed evil was personified by the devil. And the devil wasn’t just a metaphor but a real live entity. My grandmother’s house in rural County Cork had a religiously-themed image hanging on one of…
Anyone who resists is a “traitor”and therefore deserving of brutal retribution
More than a month has elapsed since Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine. Its constant targeting of civilian targets, and evidence in recent days of other mass atrocities, have dispelled any doubt that what we are witnessing in Ukraine is nothing less than an annihilative effort by Moscow – an attempt to negate…
The Conservative leadership hopeful is attempting to rewrite history
Jean Charest joined the federal Conservative leadership race on Mar. 10. His campaign team immediately began to tout his experience as a former Progressive Conservative leader and cabinet minister, and former Quebec Liberal premier. That’s a predictable strategy. What’s also predictable is that Charest and his team initiated the long, arduous process of attempting to…
Saudi Arabia is in active talks with China to price some of its oil in yuan
The United States owes a significant part of its eminence as the sole superpower to the dominance of its dollar in the global economy. This dominance is aided by the fact that the dollar is the currency of the global oil trade. Every country in the world needs U.S. dollars to buy oil. Even without…
Russia terrorizing Ukraine because America isn't demonstrating the resolve Trump did four years ago
ORLANDO, Fla. – Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the world is a more dangerous place under President Joe Biden than it was under Donald Trump. Speaking Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando (CPAC), Pompeo recited a laundry list of what he said are Trump’s accomplishments, including building a border wall,…