LILLEY: Trudeau talks a lot on the world stage but says nothing and has no one listening

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If Canada were to fall in the forest, would anyone on the international stage hear or notice?

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Despite Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party campaigning on “Canada’s back” when they first won in 2015, we are anything but back.

Trudeau is now one of the senior leaders at the kid of world summits he’s been attending these last two weeks – Commonwealth, G7 and NATO – but acts and sounds like a juvenile. I’m not just talking about his jokes about him with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson about whose plane is bigger or the comments about G7 leaders taking off their shirts to scare Putin, it’s when he’s asked serious questions that Trudeau is at his worst about him .

The leaders of Germany, France and Italy all made comments during the G7 about the need for oil and gas producing countries to increase output to help European countries reduce their reliance on Russian fossil fuels which are then used to fund the war in Ukraine.

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French President Emmanuel Macron said that oil-producing countries have “immense responsibility given our collective dependence on them.” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said that he wants to talk to Trudeau about Canada’s oil and gas production while Germany is hoping for a deal on liquified natural gas.

Yet, when asked about all of this, Trudeau spoke at length about the need to transition to clean energy rather than the role Canada can play in the short and medium term in displacing Putin’s oil and gas.

“Canada has long been a leader and will continue to step up whether it’s on hydrogen, whether it’s on hydro-electricity projects around the world, whether it’s on clean energy investments, through the significant financing that we’re giving for fighting climate change, Trudeau said.

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Trudeau doesn’t see Canada’s role as helping our allies, helping the world with what they need now – by providing products we have in abundance – he sees our role as continuing to lecture them about getting off of fossil fuels and in his words, “ moving in the right direction.” Even the best projections show the world economy needing oil and gas for decades to come but Trudeau wants to stop it now.

In March, a month after Putin’s invasion, the Trudeau government announced an overall increase in Canadian output of 300,000 barrels a day by the end of 2022. This came at a time when Europe was importing 2.3 million barrels a day from Russia.

Italy has had to sign energy deals with Algeria, the Biden administration in Washington has gone cap in hand to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela – two countries without Canada’s environmental standards – but Trudeau sees no impetus to help increase Canadian production or export capacity. He’s willing to talk about putting a cap on what Russia can sell for to bring down the price but not helping increase Canadian output to do the same.

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On defence, he’s equally wishy washedy.

While Trudeau beats his chest and boasts of Canada’s contribution of up to 639 troops in Latvia as part of a NATO mission, we are behind the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria. NATO is also calling out Canada for spending less each year on defense but Trudeau whistles past that when asked.

“Canada is always part of NATO missions and continues to step up significantly. Canadians expect us to do that in a responsible and reflective way,” Trudeau said.

It’s a phrase that means nothing, much like Canada’s contribution to the world stage under his leadership.

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