HANNAFORD: Harper... in Tel Aviv and New Delhi, an adult in the room

To the best of my knowledge, Stephen Harper has never, in this country or in India, or even in his lifetime, sported a turban. Nor indeed a gold lamé Nehru-suit. Or blackface. Or extreme socks. But unlike his successor, whose sartorial tastes ran to the extreme-extremes of snazzy Indian wedding-feast exotica, Mr. Harper remains welcome in the world's largest democracy. .Indeed he's there now together with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, trying to fix up Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's fubars.These, the attentive reader will recall, were not all to do with his clothes or his intemperate use of shoe polish.Rash accusations against the Indian government of covert operations on Canadian soil also had something to do with it. And there was the business of the aircraft... I have always thought it a very good thing that when the prime minister's aircraft had mechanical issues in New Delhi, the Canadian Armed Forces got him out before the Government of India provided a transport of its own and a team to see that he got to it safely.It gives us no pleasure to report that in India, the prime minister is considered a complete doofus.That is because much as we have important doctrinal differences with him, not to mention some animus — when Premier Danielle Smith referred to Justin Trudeau's government Wednesday as a ‘delusional adversary,’ we could only sadly agree — it is nevertheless in Canada’s interests to have somebody in the prime minister’s office who can represent Canada's interests in a professional and competent manner.Someone then, who can persuasively present Canada’s interest. After all, the 'world’s largest democracy' buys a lot of stuff — stuff we grow, mine, make and sell. Saskatchewan has been trying to develop trade with India, for a long time.As prime minister between 2006 and 2015, Mr. Harper himself was an enthusiastic promoter of the Indian trade, and along with agri-food, personally expedited uranium exports to India — from Saskatchewan.When Mr. Trudeau crashed and burned, all of this went into slow mode.But, good news. Harper (who has now reinvented himself as an extremely high-end consultant) and Moe are now in India to attempt what the incumbent prime minister is no longer able to do — that is, to reawaken New Delhi's interest in exports of Saskatchewan's fine natural resources and agricultural products.The time is right. Canadian exports to India were worth more than $5 billion last year, up sharply from $3 billion two years before that. (No doubt Mr. Trudeau will claim credit, anyway.) Of that, Saskatchewan's agri-food exports and coal accounted for more than a quarter. But they could be so much more.Bottom line: It's good to know that when the prime minister is out to lunch, there's somebody minding the store.

HANNAFORD: Harper... in Tel Aviv and New Delhi, an adult in the room

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