REALITY CHECK: China is a country

Speaking with reporters Tuesday about his recent trip to China, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe had a Sarah Palin moment, stating that “about 12 percent of our exports go to the continent of China.”

While Moe is correct that China is an important trading partner, China is a country, not a continent.

Geographical confusion aside, Moe’s slip of the tongue raises more serious questions about what Moe’s trip to China accomplished. For example, those briefing Moe for future interviews might want to prepare him for the following:

  • How much did the China trip cost?
  • What had Moe hoped to achieve that leaves him optimistic but with nothing to show?
  • Was any progress made in repairing Sask. Party insider Bill Boyd’s damage to our relationship with China with his irrigation/immigration scheme?
  • Did Moe try to sell China on the carbon capture technology that his own government says is too expensive to use on the rest of Saskatchewan's coal plants? If so, what was the response?
  • Given that China signed a sweeping clean-technology deal with the state of California last year, and that Saskatchewan has abundant but largely untapped supplies of sun and wind, did Moe take any action to pursue a similar clean energy collaboration agreement for the province of Saskatchewan?
  • Why does Moe spend so much time focused elsewhere — picking fights with Ottawa, lobbying his Republican friends on NAFTA to no avail, travelling to China with no clear objectives — and so little time addressing the urgent economic and social problems his government’s poor choices have created in Saskatchewan?

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