Canada needs smarter leaders

[dan_s]

Opinion: Trudeau denies natural gas to another ally in favour of fictive agenda. Financial Post.
Kenneth Green, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, writes: Having shown Germany the back of his hand in August when Chancellor Olaf Scholz asked to buy some of Canada’s abundant natural gas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeated the performance only two weeks into 2023 — this time snubbing the people of Japan. First, it’s bad for Canada’s trade and economy. This should be self-evident.
> We have a resource that does less damage to the environment than available alternatives and that we could sell at a good profit to people who are eager to buy it. Yet we simply won’t do it.
> Second, snubbing our allies in this way undermines Canada’s reputation as a reliable trade partner and raises red flags to other countries that might want to develop trade relations with us.
> Third, the prime minister’s actions harm Canada’s foreign policy power. It makes no sense to slap down countries with shared geopolitical interests that you’ve partnered with in the past and might want to partner with again in future in order to influence world policy.