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QUEBEC CITY–In bypassing the Beijing Olympics, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has undermined the work that every Canadian leader since John Diefenbaker has poured into improving relations with China, Jean Chrétien said yesterday.
The former prime minister said he would not have hesitated for "a second" to attend the Games and called Harper's decision to skip the opening ceremonies a mistake with potentially costly consequences for Canadian trade. "It is the second-biggest economy in the world and, in 50 years, it will be the biggest economy in the world," Chrétien told reporters after a speech to the Canadian Bar Association.
"Starting with Diefenbaker, Trudeau and all of us, we established very good relations, relatively speaking, with China. And suddenly you break the bridge."
Harper's office noted in response that Chrétien had missed several Olympics while he was prime minister from 1993 to 2003.
"I find it ironic that Prime Minister Chrétien ... somehow skipped the '94, '98, 2000 and 2002 opening ceremonies. Based on his remarks, should we conclude that relations with those countries were damaged because Prime Minister Chrétien did not attend four out of five Olympic games that took place while he was prime minister?" said Dimitri Soudas, Harper's assistant press secretary.
Chrétien did attend the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Some 80 heads of state and government attended the Beijing opening ceremonies Aug. 8, but Harper was not among them, staying away because of a "scheduling conflict." Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson, who went instead, has said Harper's absence wasn't a snub and that Canada's relations with China are improving.
Yesterday's remarks were not the first political potshots Chrétien has taken at Harper. The most memorable were during the 2006 Liberal leadership convention in Montreal, where he openly mocked Harper.
"I was in China and Hong Kong ... and I think Harper is even less popular (there) than in Canada," he told the partisan crowd then.
Yesterday, Chrétien struck a more serious note while critiquing relations with China, and took a swipe at Harper's attitude toward the U.S.
Chrétien and his prime ministerial predecessors didn't masquerade as "le nouveau petit chien des États Unis" – the United States' newest "lap dog," he said. "We all had an attitude that was independent."
It was an apparent dig at the Harper government's support for many of U.S. President George W. Bush's policies and a comparison to former British prime minister Tony Blair, who was accused by critics of being Bush's "poodle."
Chrétien had just delivered a well-received breakfast speech to lawyers and judges at the bar association's annual meeting. The Olympics came up when he opened the floor to questions.
Speaking to reporters in the hallway later, Chrétien, who led several trade missions to China while he was prime minister, said that while Canada is an important trading partner with China, it has little chance of influencing its politics.
Canada had "a considerable advantage" during those trade missions because of its citizens' long-standing good relations with the country – dating back to the time of Dr. Norman Bethune, the Gravenhurst-born physician who in the 1930s travelled as a battlefield surgeon with the Communists, he said.
The relationship strengthened under John Diefenbaker, Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau – the first western leader to recognize China – Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney "and myself," said Chrétien, who met with Chinese leaders 18 times as PM and still travels there on business as a private consultant.
With files from Richard Brennan
