The Canadian Oil Industry’s Influence On The Harper Government’s China Policy

Stephen Harper’s time in office has been a turbulent one for Sino-Canadian relations. By adopting a conservative "value-oriented" foreign policy, the conservative party severely strained relations with China, thereby breaking with every former governments policy of engagement and damaging 35 years of friendly diplomatic exchanges. Come 2009, during Harper’s second term in office, the government suddenly changed its position on China and immediately went about repairing the relation. One of the prime reasons for this change in attitude has to do with the Canadian oil industry and its role as a powerful none-state actor. For the past few years, the energy sector has been Canada’s most important source of GDP growth, investment and employment, however, owing to the fast disappearance of the countries sole export market, the United States of America, the industry finds itself in dire circumstances and in need of export diversification. China, being a potentially hugely lucrative market, has caused the mobilisation of the whole Canadian oil industry to pressure the government into changing its approach towards the country. Through its influence and lobbying effort, the industry succeeded in its mission, proving that as a none-state actor, the Canadian oil industry has a much stronger grasp on power then previously thought, to the point where it can control the country’s political agenda, economic policy, its foreign policy, even force two ideologically opposed countries to repair relations. Under Prime Minister Harper’s leadership, the oil industry has become the economic engine of the country, making its interests synonymous with that of the whole country. Since the oil industry need the Chinese market in order to prosper, Harper has but no choice to go against his "value-oriented" foreign policy and opt for a more pragmatic approach instead.