Conservatives walking fine line in attacking Liberals on foreign interference – National

One of Pierre Poilievre’s interventions during Wednesday’s question period neatly summed up the balance Conservatives are trying to strike in attacking the Liberal government on foreign interference.

“This is actually not about one member of Parliament,” Poilievre said, referencing allegations that China’s security services targeted MP Michael Chong’s family. “This is about millions of patriotic Canadians of Chinese descent who face this kind of abuse and harassment every single day,”

The balance involves, naturally, attacking the real and perceived Liberal failings to prevent or deter foreign meddling in Canadian politics. But it also involves separating the alleged actions of the Chinese government from Canadian voters of Chinese descent.

“We hear stories of Chinese Canadians in tears because they are being intimidated by agents just like the one who attacked (Chong’s) family. These are our people. This is our home.”

Stressing the distinction could be motivated by the party’s experience in the 2021 election, when Conservatives believed Erin O’Toole’s hawkish stance on relations with China alienated Canadian voters of Chinese descent.

4:42
Trudeau insists info on China’s alleged threat to Michael Chong never made it to him, office

But that’s not the only balance the Conservatives have to strike. They attack Liberals for failing to address allegations that the Chinese government attempt to meddle in the two most recent elections, which the Conservatives happened to have lost. But when it comes to allegations about possible Conservative complicity in an alleged Beijing-connected network active during the 2019 election, they can’t cast too many stones. According to intelligence sources, Liberals and Conservatives were both involved.

That may help explain why the two parties sometimes echo each other.

“We’ve seen the report that CSIS told the prime minister to remove the candidate in Don Valley North,” Hamish Marshall, the Conservative’s national campaign director in 2019, told a House of Commons committee in April.

Marshall was referring to a Global News report that those close to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knew of intelligence…