Canadian Politics Today

Who cares?

I suppose just because most of  the world's more important governments don't like us now that's no reason to question the brilliance of your pretty PM and his noble foreign outreach.

There's ample evidence presented that the Saudis and Americans don't like much of anyone.  I didn't think that bowing to China was much your style, either.

Canada's Back!

Wasn't that a major part of the Liberal selling job? Canada was an international pariah and the Liberals would be Captain Canada! Everyone in the world would love us now and we'd be honored and respected everywhere!

Unfriend list

US
Russia
China
India
Japan
Australia
Saudi Arabia (and by extension much of the Muslim world)

So much for that one.

India is about the only one there that I can see a legitimate issue with.  Why do we want Russia to like us?  They didn't like us when Harper was in power?  Why do you want China to like us?  Is it necessary?  The US and Saudi don't get along with anyone right now, and Australia and Japan were mad because we didn't bow to their demands and sign a trade deal that wasn't in our best interests.  I get it - you don't like Trudeau.

So your position is that it's perfectly fine for most of the world to dislike us as long as we can stand on our noble pedestal and lecture them about our moral superiority and purity?

There are two issues I have with this. First, it's pointless, because none of them respect us enough to pay the slightest heed to our words. And two, it puts us in a position where Canada is lecturing, getting slapped for it, and finding no sympathy throughout the world, including from our so-called allies, because they know what a bunch of strutting, moral braggarts we are.

You seem to be making a habit of saying that no matter what the liberals do and how contrary that is to what they said they would do, it's all great because they're Liberals, and thus beyond reproach.

Is this really the first time a foreign government expressed displeasure over Saudi human rights abuses?

The reaction seems staged. What is really going on?

So after some reading, I think the main issue here is the Saudi prince can't be seen to be pushed around or bullied by the West. This over-reaction isn't about Canada, it's about sending a message to his own citizens.  He has been using his political capital to take on hard-line clerics and remove old-guard conservatives from positions of power and influence. He is pursuing a plan he calls "Vision 2030" to modernize Saudi Arabia, and there is a lot of push-back from conservative religious forces in the country.

"You are a puppet of the west! You are selling us out to the west!" is once of the political tactics his opponents will use against him.  He has seized on this as an opportunity to show that he can stand up to the west.  Canada is a country with a big mouth but little clout, and turning this into a big deal gives him a chance to show his citizens that he can stand up to the west.

Politically, he can't afford to look weak when pressured from the outside.  For a Canadian comparison, a politician bending the knee to Donald Trump would be apt. I don't think any Canadian politician can afford the optics of being pushed around by Trump on trade. I think the Saudi prince is in a similar situation in regard to foreign critics.

 -k

It's not surprising the Saudis reacted, just how over the top it was. His social reforms are also questionable. Women driving was nice for optics but relatively minor when it comes to restrictions women are still subjected to. Executions are also way up under Salman.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43316987

Yeah. Maybe if he changes their school texts to not tell every kid in Saudi Arabia that Jews and Christians were evil that would be a better start...