Canada’s Prime Minister Stephan Harper went to China.  Fascinatingly enough it was to encourage economic relations between Canada and China.  Previous relations have been described as cool as Canada has been pushing the issue of China’s human rights record, dampening Chinese enthusiasm toward our diplomatic and economic overtures.

I’d like to do a little comparison of similar dealings with China and our plucky PM.   2006 and 2009.

In 2006 our benevolent leader said:

“Prime Minister Stephen Harper says his government will not abandon “important Canadian values” by toning down criticisms of China’s human rights record to improve trade relations with Beijing.”

In 2009 Harper said:

“Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday his government would not let the pursuit of expanded economic ties with China lead to silence on human rights issues.”

Okay well, I’ve seen our PM say less auspicious things, so really we are still in ‘win territory’ here.

“Canada-China relations have been frosty since Harper became prime minister in 2006, particularly because of his past comments on China’s human rights record and his public support of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who has been living in exile since China annexed the region in 1958.”

Showing ethical backbone is so unlike our PM.  Time in power will often fix that:

“The Conservative government has backed off in the last year from publicly chiding China, opting instead for more quiet diplomacy, a recognition of China’s growing importance as an economic power.”

There we go, dilemma resolved!  We simple will not discuss human rights anymore to any significant degree.  Why?  Because we can make some money!  And as we all know, economics trumps morality.

“They [Harper on Canadian’s preferences] don’t want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar.”

Huh.   It is almost like in 2006 when the stability of the minority government was in question it made political sense to at least make noise about caring for human rights.  Now in 2009 we get the ‘realistic and pragmatic’ conservative version of enlightening Canadian foreign policy:

Thursday’s statement only briefly mentioned the issue of human rights, saying the two sides agreed they had “distinct points of view.”

Checkmate human-rights.   Although our point of view is getting much closer to China’s every day.