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It’s a shocking statement, even for a man who made some shocking statements during his political career.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, John McCallum said China should go easy on Canada over the Huawei case to help the Liberals in the coming election.

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“Anything that is more negative against Canada will help the Conservatives, (who) are much less friendly to China than the Liberals,” McCallum told the news outlet on Monday.

“I hope and I don’t see any reason why things will get worse, it would be nice if things will get better between now and (Canada’s federal) election (in October).”

Those are outrageous comments even for the man who was effectively fired as Justin Trudeau’s ambassador to China. McCallum, a long-time Liberal MP and senior cabinet minister, was appointed by Trudeau as ambassador in January 2017.

He was fired in January for musings on the detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.