Juno News - August 21, 2021


Will foreign affairs be an election issue？


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

200.8629

Word Count

838

Sentence Count

41

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Will foreign affairs issues be properly addressed, properly debated, and hashed out
00:00:08.800 during the current federal election campaign? So far, that remains to be seen. But let's hope
00:00:14.240 those issues are properly discussed. You know, we've had campaigns here in Canada where we
00:00:18.400 haven't really tackled foreign affairs to the degree that we should. But when we're talking
00:00:23.040 about the federal government, let's be honest, that's one of the sort of primary functions
00:00:27.200 of the federal government. Service delivery matters are a local or municipal and a provincial issue.
00:00:33.700 Federal, I mean, we gotta talk about things like foreign affairs. Now, we all know that one of the
00:00:38.980 more sort of common refrains that they like to use in political strategy offices and campaign offices
00:00:44.720 is this phrase that gained popularity in the 90s. It was, it's the economy, stupid. And there's a bit
00:00:50.180 of folklore that says that James Carville, who was Bill Clinton's campaign manager, his 1992 campaign
00:00:56.260 manager that brought Bill Clinton to office, that he put this sign up in the campaign office. It's
00:01:00.480 the economy, stupid. So anytime a strategist was, you know, doing their work, they were having their
00:01:05.000 meetings, they looked up and they saw that sign. And that was supposed to remind them that pocketbook
00:01:09.060 issues, economic issues, jobs, they are the number one concern of voters. They are the ways to win an
00:01:14.820 election. And we can argue the degree to which that is true or not true, but clearly we see that there
00:01:19.580 are a lot of voters out there who feel that those issues do indeed resonate with them and they do move
00:01:24.840 their votes. So we, we pretty much consistently see that politicians do focus on those issues.
00:01:30.060 Aaron O'Toole is someone who has a lot to say about foreign policy issues and a lot of things that I
00:01:35.120 think Canadians really need to consider and take seriously on foreign affairs. And they're in his
00:01:40.100 platform, but the platform is very, very heavily weighted, at least in terms of the attention they
00:01:45.620 draw to it on the economic issues, the pocketbook issues. They call it the recovery plan and they're
00:01:50.860 very focused on economic recovery, jobs and so forth. Fair enough, because we're just coming out
00:01:55.420 of the pandemic where there's been, been a lot of economic challenges and some economic missteps on
00:02:00.260 the part of Justin Trudeau. So that's why O'Toole is focusing on that classic James Carville strategy
00:02:05.020 there, both because I think it's warranted based on the facts on what we're seeing. And because I'm
00:02:09.580 sure strategically, they feel that's the way to reach a lot of voters. But let's be honest, foreign
00:02:14.660 affairs is such an important issue right now on a number of fronts. Did we expect that the
00:02:19.020 Afghanistan issue would be so writ large as it is right now? No, I certainly don't think the
00:02:23.660 liberal strategists did. I don't think they thought on the very day that they were announcing the
00:02:27.820 campaign and the day Justin Trudeau went to see Governor General Mary Simon that, well, that would
00:02:32.240 be the day that Kabul fell to the Taliban. And we see these awful images, these horrific pictures
00:02:37.680 and videos of people clinging onto planes for dear life, the anarchy continuing at the airports there in
00:02:43.560 Afghanistan as our allies, people who worked for us in the embassies and so forth. Their lives are at risk.
00:02:47.940 We got to get them out. And that is an issue that Trudeau really needs to be pressed on. And we also
00:02:52.540 need to talk about what happens next in Afghanistan, a power vacuum, obviously the Taliban filling it
00:02:58.600 sort of physically, but Pakistan always waging some sort of a proxy war there. Former Ambassador
00:03:03.500 Chris Alexander speaking very passionately about that in Canada. How are we going to deal with those
00:03:09.040 issues? How is Canada on the world stage going to engage with those new dynamics in Afghanistan? We got
00:03:13.680 to talk about that because that stuff really matters. And the other big foreign affairs issue,
00:03:18.040 of course, how to deal with China. Now, Erin O'Toole and their platform, they talk about dealing with
00:03:23.500 China a great deal and some interesting stuff that we have to pay attention to there. Justin Trudeau,
00:03:28.600 well, I mean, he hasn't really managed the China file well, and there's been no resolution to Michael
00:03:33.320 Kovrig and Michael Spavor. And in fact, that's worsened, obviously, just in recent months. So you can
00:03:38.320 understand why Justin Trudeau would prefer to just step away from the foreign policy issues. But
00:03:43.820 this should really be a foreign affairs matter. This should be an election where we talk about
00:03:50.040 international matters as much as possible. So folks have to keep the heat on their candidates
00:03:54.600 and, of course, on the leaders and encourage the media and the debate leaders to bring these
00:03:59.480 issues to the fore so foreign affairs really gets the serious discussion that it deserves.
00:04:08.320 Thank you.
00:04:09.820 Thank you.