Possibly Two Things.....

Today’s letters: What was Bob Rae thinking?

1) Continuing to undermine Iggy as "leader" of the liberal party.
2) Trying to gloss over his massive failure as "leader" of the Ontario NDP and Premier of Ontario.


Re: Speaking Up For Our Economic Interests Abroad, letter to the editor, Jan. 13.

One of the low-lights of my career as a trade commissioner with the Department of Foreign Affairs occurred in the early 1990s. As the trade commissioner responsible for trade development with China, I was tasked in Canada with an incoming mission, led by the vice-governor of an important, leading industrial hi-tech province.

At the time, all Canadian provincial trade departments were eager to expand trade with China and responded to the incoming mission by lining up key business and government meetings. The federal government’s policy at the time was not to isolate China for its human rights policies, post-Tiananmen, but to use trade as a device to address those issues. Provincial governments accepted this policy and responded accordingly.

Except for the Rae government in Ontario. Not only did the Ontario minister responsible for trade refuse to meet with any Chinese government representative, but bureaucrats in his department refused to co-operate.

Post-Tiananmen, I met regularly with Canadian business leaders, particularly those in the Chinese/Canadian community in Toronto, to assure them that we would not isolate China but would continue to foster our mutually beneficial trade ties, despite the Rae government’s attitude to the contrary.

If the UAE is so eager to fight violent extremism, as claimed by Mr. Rae, why are UAE ports crammed with vessels from Iran, as noted during U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s current visit to the Gulf States? Some Canadian ambassador, eh?
Irving W. Rosenfeld, Canadian Trade Commissioner (retired), Ottawa.

Liberal MP Bob Rae may be correct that in the past, Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day attacked the Liberal government’s decision not to join the United States in its decision to invade Iraq. Read More »