When you question Stephen Harper’s foreign policy, he attacks your patriotism. When he makes a mistake, he won’t acknowledge it. When he’s losing a debate, he recasts it as cultural warfare between good and evil, and lashes out at critics with little or no regard for facts.

All these traits are on full display in his nasty row with the United Arab Emirates.

When Bob Rae, Liberal foreign affairs critic, said that Ottawa has been “reckless” in poisoning this relationship, the Harperites called him a bad Canadian, and “a door mat” for Arab royals.

Harper accused the U.A.E. of trying to take commercial advantage of Canada’s war on terror in Afghanistan by cancelling a lease on an air base that Canada had used for nine years to ship troops and equipment into and out of Afghanistan.

The U.A.E.’s decision followed Ottawa’s rejection of additional landing rights for Emirates and Etihad airlines, and reciprocal visa-free entry here for Emirati citizens.

Dan McTeague, Liberal critic for consular affairs, thinks that Harper is being an ungrateful wretch. The MP for Pickering-Scarborough East, told me Friday:

“Unlike the prime minister’s charge that the U.A.E. has been soft on terrorism, they provided us Camp Mirage free.

“They treated about 100 wounded Canadian soldiers in Dubai, free of charge, and sent many home on Emirate Airways, first class. Their treatment of our soldiers has been better than Harper shortchanging our walking wounded from Afghanistan.

“And let’s not forget that U.A.E. helped free two Canadian hostages from Iraq in 2005 — James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden.

“The facts are there for Canadians to see.”

The U.A.E. is so incensed that it might recall its ambassador from Ottawa, I am told.

The damage may extend to the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain).

Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon, visiting Doha Thursday, was bluntly told of Qatar’s displeasure at Canada’s treatment of their neighbour, according to a source. Following that meeting, Cannon abruptly cancelled a scheduled news conference.

At stake is our $1.5 billion a year trade with U.A.E. — 95 per cent of it in our favour — that holds high promise when we are desperate to find non-American markets.

The U.A.E. is spending tens of billions on infrastructure projects that Canadian companies are well-suited to bid on. That’s why 200 of them have opened offices there, including Bombardier, which wants to sell its mid-range aircraft and bid on a $20 billion high-speed rail project.

The U.A.E. has invested $4.4 billion in Canada, and may increase it manyfold, given its $1 trillion sovereign fund.

U.A.E.’s purchase of dozens of wide-body Boeing planes is also good for Canada, since a third of the parts are manufactured by 41 Canadian companies, 15 of them in Ontario.

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Having botched the relationship, Harper and ministers have presented themselves as defenders of Air Canada and, thus, Canada.

But Air Canada is no longer a state carrier. It’s just another big Canadian company (that often annoys its customers). It gets Ottawa’s help through protected routes and severe restrictions on foreign carriers.

If allowing the two U.A.E. airlines would cost Canada “tens of thousands of jobs,” as Ottawa says, it needs to show how and where — and how the job losses would stack up against the new jobs created with the proposed expanded services.

If Emirates and Etihad are subsidized, Ottawa must prove how and where. It’s not good enough to cite the U.A.E.’s airport infrastructure program or its lower taxation. All jurisdictions compete with such incentives. Indeed, the Harper government boasts of lowering corporate taxes to lure business.

Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary airports are keen to host the U.A.E. airlines.

Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia have agreements with U.A.E. to expand trade. An Alberta delegation is in U.A.E. this week.

U.A.E. has emerged as the financial and transportation hub for a vast region, from the Middle East to Africa to China and India. It is leading a shift in transportation from the West to the East, in sync with the economic centre of gravity moving east.

Canada’s response cannot be crass protectionism and holding Canadian consumers hostage, but rather a confident foray into the bigger world, as suggested by Ottawa’s own Competition Policy Review Panel.

What we have instead from Harper is petulance and demagoguery that will cost Canada dearly.

Haroon Siddiqui is the Star's editorial page editor emeritus. His column appears on Thursday and Sunday. hsiddiqui@thestar.ca

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