Canada Pandas To Be Loaned By China

BEIJING -- Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrapped up a visit to China aimed at boosting oil sales by announcing Saturday that Beijing will lend two of the country's prized giant pandas to Canadian zoos.

Harper visited a zoo in the southwestern city of Chongqing to say that the Chinese government is loaning the panda pair to Canada for the next 10 years, Harper's press secretary Carl Vallee said.

News photos showed Harper looking on as his wife carried a squirming baby panda.

The pandas are expected to arrive in Canada early next year and will go to the Toronto and Calgary zoos for five years each. The giant panda is unique to China and is regularly sent abroad as a sign of warm diplomatic relations or to mark breakthroughs in ties.

Harper also met with Bo Xilai, Chongqing's Communist Party secretary on Saturday, Vallee said. No details of their meeting were immediately available.

One of China's most prominent political figures, Bo has been the subject of speculation in recent days after his once-close aide, former police chief Wang Lijun, went to the U.S. consulate in a nearby city purportedly to seek asylum.

Wang's whereabouts is unknown. The uncertainty has fueled speculation over a falling-out between Wang and Bo, who has been seen as maneuvering for a seat on the ruling Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, which will appoint new members later this year.

Comments

[brinniewales]

07:45 PM on 02/13/2012

HuffPost: Couldn't you have written a better title than "Canada Pandas To Be Loaned By China"? Is that correct syntax?

[madcityy]

12:44 PM on 02/12/2012

howwwwwwwwwww dumbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb r the canada folks,,,sucked in by bears????????????

they r dopeir than we r in the usaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[synergie]

12:59 AM on 02/13/2012

Having keyboard issues?

[AllegroTroppo]

10:20 AM on 02/12/2012

Borrowing from China is becoming an international pastime.

[lacabrera]

09:59 AM on 02/12/2012

Pandas for OIL ! why dind't Obama think of that !

[Jeff Forsythe]

09:39 AM on 02/12/2012

Gee, what cute bears the Chinese Communist Party has lent to Canada. They almost make us forget the brutality of the gangster CCP regime.
It seems to me that there are a few facts concerning human rights that are being ignored by Western Governments.
The fact that the brutal Chinese Communist Party has murdered 80 million of its own people since 1949, the fact that it is attempting the genocide of tens of millions of innocent Falun Gong practitioners by the use of torture, slavery, organ harvesting and murder. The fact that there are hundreds of slave camps hidden all over Red China where all the junk that is sold here is being produced. The fact that a million homes were demolished to build the Olympic Complex with no compensation offered to the poor families who lost everything ­. The fact that 64 kindergard­en children were riding in a nine seat van when it crashed and 15 of the children died while rich Party members buy their girlfriend­s million dollar apartments in Paris. The fact that the poor pay twelve different taxes while the rich pay nary one.
All of these human rights issues I mentioned are true but the Government­s of the World are not informing its citizens because then some very rich greedy corporatio­ns might lose out on some business deal with the gangster Chinese regime.
Just my understanding, thank you.
Still though, what cute bears.

[AllegroTroppo]

10:24 AM on 02/12/2012

Another example of liberal failure to accept communist, socialists and anyone else who fails to toe liberal doctrine.

[Skookum1]

01:12 PM on 02/13/2012

"liberal doctrine" as in "respecting/protecting human rights" and "not wantonly killing citizens" and "fair economic/trade policies" and "demilitarization" etc?

[Vrano]

08:42 AM on 02/12/2012

Canada:
Dear China, due to Obama's poor decision making, we will now be letting you get our oil for refining.

China:
Dear Canada, that is great news. To show our appreciation, you can borrow a couple of our pandas.

Bill McKibben:
Dear USA, I was right, killing the Keystone XL project saved pandas.

[Kati Blake]

07:08 AM on 02/12/2012

I'm not sure that lending pandas to countries around the world will do much to ensure the survival of the species - they would almost certainly fare better being kept in an established breeding centre and the young being released slowly.

However, I hope that Canada enjoy having the pandas, and that they produce young which can then be released. They are such cute animals, and their extinction would be a real blow.

Caja x
www.pawsfourthought.com/Caja-De-La-Memoria

[Ron Menge]

02:25 AM on 02/12/2012

looks like he makes a good rug

[OH canada]

02:04 AM on 02/12/2012

when's this guy's term over?

[Skookum1]

01:15 PM on 02/13/2012

2015. Unless by some miracle he winds up under criminal investigation, or infirm or dead, he's pretty much King until then. Enough MPs crossing the floor could bring down the government, but it would have to be a pretty strong issue/scandal to get them to do so.

[Grant in Calgary]

06:52 PM on 02/13/2012

We can only hope . . . 2015 is too long to let this guy have his way.

[Skookum1]

01:17 PM on 02/13/2012

and actually it's conceivably 2016, though the maximum five-year possible is not usually followed through on; those times it's happened, provincially or federally, the incumbent doesn't win; so they tend to hold elections on a 3 or 4 year rotation...whenever they've greased the wheels of the election machinery and policy, and public largesse, and have some way to hobble the opposition timing-wise, that's when the next election will be called. It's never level ground in Canada, never a level playing field......the Tories used to complain about all this in their demands for "Reform" (when they were the Reform Party), now they're entrenching it and making it worse....

[proudnative]

01:39 AM on 02/12/2012

That's so nice of them! International cooperation is a lovely thing. :)

[lv777lv21]

01:45 PM on 02/12/2012

Cotton candy and Milk Shakes for everyone!! Oh boy life is so lovely...Gee! lets give China oil that's right next door to us so we can keep supporting the M. E. But your Obama sure knows how to speak eloquently­... Keep your eloquent speech left wingers. 20,000 jobs gone to China... Thanks Obama!!! So nice of you...

[proudnative]

07:38 PM on 02/13/2012

LOL, epic fail on you, I'm a conservative. I just thought it was a nice, positive story.

[Casida ONeill]

01:05 AM on 02/12/2012

Looks like panda propaganda to me...

[Top Level]

12:08 AM on 02/12/2012

Pandas in exchange for oil

[bi1]

12:00 AM on 02/12/2012

well we sure know how to screw up a good thing ,whats for supper?Pandas!

[liddle3220]

11:56 PM on 02/11/2012

China to Loan Canada Two Pandas. In exchange for oil deal as well.

[pinkibus]

04:11 PM on 02/13/2012

Canadians have to find away to get the oil over the Rockies and through land which the aboriginals own. The deal is dead in the water. Harper had no idea that the Chinese are the best traders in the world.

[Grant in Calgary]

06:56 PM on 02/13/2012

I wouldn't be too sure about that. With the amount of development in the oilsands, by companies all over the world, I think you will see both a western export pipeline and some form of XL in the future.

The oil companies aren't spending all this money in development of high cost extraction fossil fuels without a market to go to.

[shieldsray]

11:49 PM on 02/11/2012

Do you think an oil deal might be next?