The CCP’s principal channel for influence in Canada has been the Canada-China Business Council. This was founded in 1978 at the instigation of the Montreal-based Power Corp., headed by Paul Desmarais. He liaised with the CCP’s most effective propagandist in the worlds of Canadian business, politics and academia, Dr. Paul Lin of the department of Asian studies at McGill University.
Power Corp., together with the aristocracy of Canadian banks, resource companies and technology enterprises, remain core members of the council. For much of the last 50 years, the political clout of the council has made it the true overseer of Canadian policy toward China.
Power Corp.’s recently retired president, Andre Desmarais, is the son-in-law of Jean Chretien. Other former prime ministers who have also worked for Power Corp. include Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney and Paul Martin Jr.
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