Why the election could impact Canadian Olympians

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It's election day in Canada and, judging by the latest opinion polls, the count might go into overtime. Among those who could be anxiously awaiting the results tonight are Canada's Winter Olympians. That's because, depending on which party wins and what type of government they form, talk of Canada boycotting the upcoming Beijing Games could heat back up.

Last February, as Beijing started its one-year countdown, three Canadian political party leaders called for the Games to be relocated. The Conservatives' Erin O'Toole, the NDP's Jagmeet Singh and the Green Party's Annamie Paul all pointed to the Chinese government's treatment of its Muslim minority population as a reason for taking the event away from China. O'Toole even floated the idea of a boycott, saying that if relocation was not possible (almost certainly the case now that the Olympics are only five months away) and if there was "no change in conduct" by China, then Canada "should examine whether our athletes compete."

Prime Minister (and Liberal Party leader) Justin Trudeau responded by saying more information was needed before labelling China's actions toward its Uyghur population a "genocide," as O'Toole had, and did not give any indication that his government would support an Olympic boycott or relocation. A few days later, the House of Commons, including most Liberal MPs who participated, voted in favour of a Conservative motion saying China's actions in its Xinjiang region meet the definition of genocide, and that the Canadian government should lobby the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Games. However, in June, the Senate voted against a similar motion.

The Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee, as you'd expect, have voiced their opposition to a boycott. "There are myriad tools available to the government to deal with this diplomatically," COC CEO Shoemaker said. "We do not see the logic that… we should in effect punish 300 athletes and boycott the Beijing Games." Outspoken Canadian IOC member Dick Pound was more blunt. "The Canadian Olympic Committee is not an instrument of the Canadian government and the Canadian athletes are not employees of the government," he said. "It's counterintuitive that Olympic athletes should be the ones who pay the price for government dissatisfaction with Chinese conduct." Pound also called the idea of moving the Games to another country at such a late stage "silly."

Compared to its peak back in February, support for a boycott of the Beijing Games seems to have waned. But O'Toole raised the issue again last month after a Chinese court rejected an appeal by a Canadian whose 15-year prison term on drug smuggling charges was increased to a death sentence in January 2019. "I know how hard our athletes are training for Beijing," O'Toole said. "But we are approaching a point where it won't be safe for Canadians, including Olympic athletes, to travel to China."

At the moment, the chances of Canada boycotting the Beijing Olympics, or the Games being relocated, appear low. But those odds could change based on what happens in this election. Read more about the Beijing boycott debate in this piece by CBC News' Geoff Nixon.