overseas
by Eric Dowd
Toronto -- Premier Dalton McGuinty must wish he could fight the next election somewhere else than Ontario.
The Liberal premier is so low in polls here it may take a Chilean miners’ rescue capsule to find him.
But McGuinty invariably attracts lavish praise where he travels abroad. In the latest example he was on a trade mission to China and a Toronto newspaper travelling with him reported he was treated like a rock star.
Chinese who met the premier, it said, called him young (he is 54) handsome and charismatic.
Those who got close enough noted he is an expert at working a room, able to make those he met feel interested in and comfortable with him.
They admired the way he slipped key points into conversations so he got his messages across.
They felt his thesis people have a collective responsibility to help each other and this motivates him, which some Ontarians consider patronizing and preachy, was insightful.
They even enjoyed his stories, well-worn here, about being the oldest of 10 children and helping raise them and later his own four children.
A lot of this is comes naturally to McGuinty. He is outgoing and friendly without being gushing and back-slapping, which has helped him survive as premier for seven years.
He feels at home speaking to people individually and in small groups and is more convincing at these than in platform speeches.
He knows what to say on trade missions -- this was his third to China -- trying to convince others to buy products manufactured in Ontario and invest in creating businesses here.
McGuinty also knows how to tailor himself to his audience, which is not always to his credit. He once criticized his Progressive Conservative predecessors for going to China and failing to draw attention to its many violations of human rights.
Now he holds back his criticisms, unlike Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who for all his many refusals to uphold human rights elsewhere had the fortitude to visit China and criticize its rights policies and faced its retaliation for it.
McGuinty is on a long list of leaders who have forgotten or muted their criticisms of China, the latest being the new British Prime Minister, David Cameron.
McGuinty has impressed people in other countries more than his predecessors, who have rarely been noticed.
A respected British financial magazine several years ago named him personality of the year, mainly because he gave industry money.
A newspaper in Britain placed McGuinty on its list of world “hotties," pointing out although then still under 50, he led Canada’s most populous province.
McGuinty responded his wife, Terri, was the only hottie in his house, showing at least he kept up with the latest slang.
Most Ontario premiers have attracted little interest in other countries. A rare exception was when far-right premier Mike Harris’s fame spread so British Conservatives, anxious to restore themselves to government after the fall of Margaret Thatcher, sent their representatives to Ontario to study the policies and strategies that brought Harris to power.
Liberal premier David Peterson impressed some in the United States who tipped him as a future prime minister, but soon after he lost his premiership.
But the words of praise in China are no guides to McGuinty’s future. The Chinese are anxious and even regimented to be polite to an important visitor.
Some Ontario voters of Chinese ancestry will feel a little honored the premier visited their country of origin. All premiers going on trade missions hope for such side-benefits.
But Ontarians in the election will have their minds on such issues as McGuinty‘s failures to safeguard taxpayers’ money, tax increases, job losses and whether he is an over-protective “nanny premier” -- no-one will be treating him like a rock star.
