I got to spend about 40 minutes with Canada's 28th most powerful person last week, when Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and I met at the Four Seasons hotel in Mumbai. The rooftop bar has one the best views in the city and the happy hour menu is excellent. Not to worry, dear taxpayers of Saskatchewan, your Premier, his press officer, and I squeezed into a tiny meeting room on the sixth floor. Mr. Wall was all business.
Maclean's magazine put nine politicians ahead of Mr. Wall, including four premiers, the leader of the Official Opposition, and the leader of the No. 3 party in Parliament. Mr. Wall was marked down for lacking big ideas. But what he does possess is a clear vision of what it will take to make Canada relevant abroad: shoe leather. The biggest economic issue facing the country is international competitiveness. Exports have rebounded more slowly from the 2009 recession than any downturn since 1951, according to the Bank of Canada. There are many reasons for this. One is that Canada's idea of itself as a great exporting nation doesn't square with the fact that the country broadly is unwilling to do the work required to actually be one.
"We all quote Wayne Gretzky about trying to go where the puck is going to be," Mr. Wall said. "We all quote him, but then we don't skate to where the puck is going to be."
The action is in Asia. China and India are the fastest and second-fastest growing major economies. Indonesia also holds tremendous potential. Mr. Wall, who was making his second visit to India as Premier, said Canada generally has been slow to pivot. The federal government devoted considerable energy and political capital into completing a trade agreement with the European Union. Business remained focused on the United States, even as that country's economy struggled to recover from the Great Recession. Mr. Wall said Ottawa and Corporate Canada are beginning to take Asia seriously. The risk is they waited too long.
"I'm not saying it's easy, but we should be hustling more," he said. "We should be getting our stuff here."
Let's look at India by way of example. It is the hottest emerging market on the planet. Local stock markets are at record levels. In October, as it cut its forecast for global economic growth, the International Monetary Fund raised its outlook for India to 5.6 per cent this year and 6.4 per cent in 2015. "There is a lot of interest because people are searching for growth," Dominic Barton, the Canadian-born head of McKinsey & Co. told the Economic Times in an interview published Wednesday.
Canada's merchandise exports to India through September were 9 per cent higher than a year ago, according to Statistics Canada data. Still, there was palpable sense of anxiety last week at a forum hosted by the Canada-India Business Council that Canada risks missing out.
"We've got to get in here fast or we're going to miss the boat," said Peter Sutherland, a former Canadian ambassador who now is the council's president. "You've seen a rush to the gates [from other nations]," said Gary Comerford, a former executive at Sun Life Financial Inc. "We seem to be taking a slow walk."
Not everyone is walking. Every banker in Mumbai knows the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board has money to spend. Hyderabad-born Prem Watsa, the founder and chief executive officer of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., this week told the Times of India that he plans to invest $1-billion (U.S.) in his native country. British Columbia Premier Christy Clark led a delegation to India in October. Cameco Corp. is working on an agreement to export uranium now than India and Canada have a nuclear agreement.
Canadians believe they have a friend in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2002, when he was chief minister of Gujarat, the state erupted in a spasm of communal violence. Mr. Modi was accused of averting his gaze as majority Hindus slaughtered Muslims in a wave of revenge killings. The courts cleared Mr. Modi, yet questions lingered. The U.S. refused to grant him a visa. Canada opted against sanctions. Instead, it became a prominent sponsor of the Vibrant Gujarat business conference.
Mr. Modi met Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Trade Minister Ed Fast in New Delhi in October. Mr. Baird invited Mr. Modi to visit Canada – that doesn't appear to be a priority for the Indian Prime Minister. Mr. Modi has visited Japan, the U.S. and Australia. Chinese President Xi Jinping conducted a state visit. Mr. Modi already has had multiple meetings with the leaders of Japan and Australia. President Barack Obama accepted an invitation to be guest of honour at Republic Day celebrations at the end of January. Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to arrive in early December.
None of this means Canada has been permanently cast aside by India. But it does suggest that Mr. Harper and other Canadian leaders are playing a risky game if they think Mr. Modi automatically is going to come to them. India has no shortage of suitors. If Canada wants a piece of the action, it is going to have to crowd in and get Mr. Modi's attention.
That's true of most of Asia, where government-to-government relationships matter more than they do in North America and Europe. Mr. Wall has made five trips to the region during his seven years as Premier. That might not score a lot of points in domestic power rankings, but one hopes Canada's weightier power brokers are paying attention to Mr. Wall's example. No politician in Canada understands better that selling requires a salesman.
Kevin Carmichael is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.