Either the Liberals and Beijing accuse the Conservatives of being like Trump or the Tories self-censor for fear of seeming like Trump

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By Patricia Adams

Donald Trump wasn’t on the ballot in Canada’s 2021 federal election but he was front-and-centre to those who mattered: Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives and Xi Jinping’s Communist Party of China, which intervened late in the game to help the Liberals tilt the balance.

Trump figured in the election both explicitly and implicitly.

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The Liberals played the Trump card early and often, repeatedly calling O’Toole “Trump North” and conjuring up Trumpian imagery by saying “Mr. O’Toole needs to be very careful that he’s not trying to stir up the kinds of divisions that exist in the United States.” Fair enough. Hyperbolic accusation against rival political parties is part of the rough-and-tumble of electoral politics.

The CCP also played the Trump card explicitly, calling O’Toole “Canada’s Donald Trump,” mocking his name, which connotes “vomit” in Mandarin, and accusing him, like Trump, of being hostile to the local Chinese community. Both Chinese-language social media, where Chinese-Canadians get much of their news, and Canada’s Chinese-language press are largely controlled by........

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