A new era for Canada rises in the East

It is one thing for pundits and other wiseacres to declare that the Great Recession has thrown the West into relative decline, and the future lies with Asia. It is another thing for a Western leader to say so himself.

But this is Stephen Harper's verdict at the end of two almost-back-to-back trips to Asia that traversed Singapore, India, China and, finally, South Korea.

"I think we have every reason to believe that the markets in the United States and in Europe that have been our more traditional market will probably experience slower growth for some time to come," he told reporters, last evening, after a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

"So the greater opportunity is obviously in the Asia-Pacific region."

This statement is no less remarkable for being completely true. Europe, of course, has been struggling to remain in the present tense for decades. But the United States has powered the global economy seemingly forever, and Canada's prosperity has hinged on our unique access to that economy.

However, even Stephen Harper, a committed continentalist, now publicly believes that our southern economic lifeline is fraying, that the United States will not easily rebound from the debt-driven damage it has inflicted on itself.

We should not despair. At the same press conference, the Prime Minister pointed to two assets that give Canada a powerful advantage over other competitors selling into the burgeoning Asian market. Those assets are, it happens, exactly what helped us integrate our economy with the United States'.

First, "we can supply some of the raw materials, resources, that very few developed countries have to offer," he explained. Second, "unlike most developed countries, Canada has very, very deep cultural links with the countries of this region and that also should give us somewhat of a privileged position."

By cultural links, he could only mean immigrants.

Canada forged its bonds with the United States through its natural resources, which have been and always will be in demand, and through its cultural affinity with the U.S. anchored in our shared British heritage.

But for more than 40 years, Canada has been bringing in immigrants by the millions from China, India and the other countries of South and East Asia - at the press conference, one Korean reporter confessed he was excited to be asking Mr. Harper a question because his wife was a Korean Canadian - and now the ties that bind are Toronto to Hong Kong, Vancouver to Seoul, and the myriad relationships forged between old Canadians, new Canadians and such countries as China, India and the regions they anchor.

This is our great comparative advantage over the United States - which takes in immigrants, voluntarily and involuntarily, overwhelmingly from Latin America - and over Europe, which is grappling with its disastrous decision to limit immigration largely to former colonies, many of them Muslim, in Africa and the Middle East.

The businesses new Canadians launch through their Asian linkages will be at the sharp end of the next Canadian economy. New Canada will break down the barriers with a continent that Old Canada still finds alien and mysterious.

Now it is for Mr. Harper to take the lead. Despite the verbal slap he received from the Chinese leadership for being so late to his Damascene conversion to the importance of Asia, this has been a successful trip, one that we could look back on in a decade as a tipping point.

But first we must discard some shibboleths. We must integrate Asian Canadians into the senior ranks of our too-white public service, and quickly, without obsessing over bilingual requirements. In many of our offices abroad and at home, Mandarin or Hindi are in greater demand than French.

And just as Sept. 11 revealed how anachronistic America's foreign policy and intelligence services had become - row on row of Russian and European desks when what was desperately needed was a grasp of Arabic and an understanding of the Middle East - so too both the public and private sector must lessen its dependence on its Atlantic inheritance and pivot toward the Pacific.

We need to talk together about this. It will be a difficult conversion for some, but leading such conversations is one of the federal government's most important jobs.

Mr. Harper deserves a good night's sleep when he returns home. And then he needs to get started in shaping the new Canada that he himself now foresees.