Canada’s Place On the World Stage Threatened







Canada’s international reputation is being jeopardized by the direction our foreign policy has taken, since Stephen Harper’s conservative government came to power in 2006. On issues such as the environment, and our relationship with the United Nations, Canada has quite frankly fallen short from the days of international admiration we once received under such Prime Ministers as Lester B. Pearson. 

In June 1972 Canada co-sponsored a United Nations conference on the environment in Sweden, one of the first of its kind, (canadasworld.com) and was an opportunity for Canada to emerge as a leader on protecting environmental issues, as well as bringing it to the forefront of world consciousness. Flash forward thirty-eight years to 2010 and Canada’s then minister of Environment John Baird, declares that Canada will not participate in the Kyoto Accord any longer, nor will it attempt to meet any national targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (cbc.ca). 

On the issue of Canada’s foreign policy agenda, it seems we are again falling short. In 1963 under then Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, Canada was well known as a nation of peacekeepers, and assisted the United Nations greatly in this way. Organizations that continue to make a difference today such as CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) were established. In 2010 Canada received the embarrassing news that it would lose its security council seat to Germany and Portugal, a historic first loss for Canada. John Baird announced "Canada's principled foreign policy is not for sale for a Security Council seat."  In the upcoming 2014 campaign for a security council seat, Canada is not even running. The rest of the world does not see Canada as an important international player on the world stage any longer, this much is clear. As Stephen Harper has said, Canada “will defend Israel whatever the cost.”       

Is the support of Israel above all else really worth sacrificing Canada’s international reputation we have worked so hard to build?  


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