Canada extends Olympic invitations to China

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Canada extends Olympic invitations to China
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CAROLYNNE WHEELER From Tuesday's Globe and Mail April 13, 2009 at 4:05 PM EDT

Stockwell Day's overtures aimed to mend last year's snub to Beijing

BEIJING — Minister of International Trade Stockwell Day handed out informal invitations to Vancouver's Winter Olympics along with handshakes and souvenir coin sets during his rounds of Chinese Cabinet ministers in Beijing, part of his quest to bolster Canada's strained ties with the country.

The move appears designed to ease hurt Chinese feelings after Prime Minister Stephen Harper declined to attend the spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics last August.

A year later, Mr. Day is now fully focused on mending fences with the world's third-largest economy to help Canada through the global economic crisis, though he has told reporters that “everything,” including human rights, is on the table.

“If you can come to visit us in Canada even before the Olympics, that would be great to see you there. And if you can come during the Olympics we can show you what we have learned in terms of your experience,” Mr. Day told Wan Gang, China's Minister of Science and Technology, after the first of three ministerial meetings MONDAY.

The minister, through an interpreter, thanked him politely for the invitation without commitment, then invited Mr. Day to next year's World Expo in Shanghai, which Mr. Day accepted with enthusiasm.

“I do get the sense that they really want to come” to Vancouver in 2010, Mr. Day said afterward. “They have busy schedules obviously, but I compliment them on their experience and say that we want to use ours similarly, and so we hope to see them there.”

Mr. Harper's decision to miss the Beijing Olympics, came on the heels of a harsh Chinese crackdown on protests in Tibet. Though Mr. Harper then insisted his decision not to attend the 2008 Games had nothing to do with public pressure, he urged China to “respect human rights and peaceful protests, not just in Tibet, but everywhere.”

Then-foreign affairs minister David Emerson attended in Mr. Harper's place, but the decision left Mr. Harper in a minority among G8 leaders. Angela Merkel of Germany said the Olympics conflicted with her vacation and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown attended the closing ceremony instead.

Though French President Nicolas Sarkozy initially threatened a boycott of the 2008 Games over the China's handling of Tibet, he later dropped his threat and joined Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, then-Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda and then-U.S. president George W. Bush in Beijing.

The third day of Mr. Day's seven-day tour saw him promoting Canadian wood-frame and energy-efficient construction, and meeting with three Chinese ministers – Mr. Wan, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming, and Minister of Transportation Li Shenglin, with whom he signed an action plan for co-operation on the Asia Pacific Gateway.

TUESDAY, Mr. Day flies on to Sichuan province, where he is to mark the groundbreaking of a Canadian-funded centre for the elderly near the epicentre of last spring's devastating earthquake. Later, he'll unveil a plaque marking the site of a new Canadian trade office in Chengdu.

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