NDP’s Mulcair lashes out at Conservative foreign policy in Montreal speech
“The interests of a tiny ideological group have taken precedence over the public interest, and petty, low-grade politics over the exercise of real leadership and realization of a long-term vision,” NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.
Photograph by: Sean Kilpatrick , THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL
— Under the Harper government, Canada has gone from a respected leader
in international foreign policy to a country that can’t even get a seat
at the table, federal opposition leader Thomas Mulcair said Thursday.
Speaking to an international affairs luncheon on his home turf in Montreal, the NDP leader blasted the Conservatives for retreating in aid and influence in Africa, East Asia and at the United Nations.
But he cautioned against Quebec abandoning its role in federal organizations such as the Canadian International Development Agency and going its own way, as the PQ government wants.
“The Harper government has broken with a foreign policy that produced results, a policy that enjoyed a large consensus for decades,” Mulcair told the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.
“They’ve turned their back on the open and progressive multilateralism Canada was famous for and that allowed it to play a preponderant role on the international scene.
“Instead, they’ve used our foreign policy simply to respond to partisan considerations,” the Outremont MP told a crowd of 250 people who paid to see him speak at a downtown hotel.
He cited several examples: Canada lost its seat at the UN Security Council in 2010, has closed embassies in several African countries, and has turned CIDA into a trade, not aid, organization.
Instead of funding programs in the poorest nations of Africa, CIDA now funds commercial projects in middle-class South America. It funds more evangelical groups, too, he said.
“More religion, less nutrition,” the NDP leader quipped.
On the economic front, Canada has been denied a seat at the annual East Asia Summit, which has chosen instead to host more “engaged” nations like Russia, the U.S. and Australia.
“Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was once asked to explain her success in international diplomacy,” Mulcair said, switching from French to English.
“In doing so, she paraphrased a rather unlikely source, Woody Allen: ‘80 per cent of success is just showing up.’ Well, our current Conservative government has failed to do even that.”
His audience — among them, ex-Liberal MNA colleague Russell Copeman, ex-McGill University chancellor Gretta Chambers, and lawyers Eric Maldoff and Julius Grey — chuckled at that.
Ottawa also has less and less to do with the countries of the Francophonie, Mulcair added — for example, by no longer funding its organization’s Conference of Ministers of Youth and Sport.
For an officially bilingual nation like Canada, “what a waste!” Mulcair said, promising to restore ties to the Francophonie if his party forms the next government.
That brought applause from the crowd, as he went on to diss Harper and cabinet ministers John Baird and Julian Fantino for trashing a legacy of global relations begun by Lester B. Pearson.
“The interests of a tiny ideological group have taken precedence over the public interest, and petty, low-grade politics over the exercise of real leadership and realization of a long-term vision.
“What you have to understand,” Mulcair told his audience, “is that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives quite like power, but they don’t like the responsibilities of governing.”
Speaking to an international affairs luncheon on his home turf in Montreal, the NDP leader blasted the Conservatives for retreating in aid and influence in Africa, East Asia and at the United Nations.
But he cautioned against Quebec abandoning its role in federal organizations such as the Canadian International Development Agency and going its own way, as the PQ government wants.
“The Harper government has broken with a foreign policy that produced results, a policy that enjoyed a large consensus for decades,” Mulcair told the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.
“They’ve turned their back on the open and progressive multilateralism Canada was famous for and that allowed it to play a preponderant role on the international scene.
“Instead, they’ve used our foreign policy simply to respond to partisan considerations,” the Outremont MP told a crowd of 250 people who paid to see him speak at a downtown hotel.
He cited several examples: Canada lost its seat at the UN Security Council in 2010, has closed embassies in several African countries, and has turned CIDA into a trade, not aid, organization.
Instead of funding programs in the poorest nations of Africa, CIDA now funds commercial projects in middle-class South America. It funds more evangelical groups, too, he said.
“More religion, less nutrition,” the NDP leader quipped.
On the economic front, Canada has been denied a seat at the annual East Asia Summit, which has chosen instead to host more “engaged” nations like Russia, the U.S. and Australia.
“Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was once asked to explain her success in international diplomacy,” Mulcair said, switching from French to English.
“In doing so, she paraphrased a rather unlikely source, Woody Allen: ‘80 per cent of success is just showing up.’ Well, our current Conservative government has failed to do even that.”
His audience — among them, ex-Liberal MNA colleague Russell Copeman, ex-McGill University chancellor Gretta Chambers, and lawyers Eric Maldoff and Julius Grey — chuckled at that.
Ottawa also has less and less to do with the countries of the Francophonie, Mulcair added — for example, by no longer funding its organization’s Conference of Ministers of Youth and Sport.
For an officially bilingual nation like Canada, “what a waste!” Mulcair said, promising to restore ties to the Francophonie if his party forms the next government.
That brought applause from the crowd, as he went on to diss Harper and cabinet ministers John Baird and Julian Fantino for trashing a legacy of global relations begun by Lester B. Pearson.
“The interests of a tiny ideological group have taken precedence over the public interest, and petty, low-grade politics over the exercise of real leadership and realization of a long-term vision.
“What you have to understand,” Mulcair told his audience, “is that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives quite like power, but they don’t like the responsibilities of governing.”
However, the former Quebec Liberal cabinent minister stopped short of
endorsing his “progressive” allies on Quebec’s provincial scene — the
Parti Québécois government of Pauline Marois.
Scrummed by reporters, he refused to say whether he supports the PQ’s plan to set up its own foreign-aid agency, announced Wednesday by international affairs minister Jean-François Lisée.
“Quebec’s values and Canada’s values are similarly progressive on the world scale, “ he said. It’s his job, he added, to make sure “international solidarity” is nurtured for “all of Canada.”
Mulcair was nursing an injured arm — appropriately for a left-winger, his right arm — because of an accident he suffered Wednesday outside his Ottawa home.
“Excuse my left hand — I fell on the ice yesterday,” he apologized before his speech, working the room and shaking hands.
Asked about it later, he joked: “My left is just as strong as it ever was.
“But I went flying on a nice sheet of sheer ice behind my residence in Ottawa yesterday that was covered by a treacherous one-quarter-inch of fresh-fallen powdery snow.
“I’ll be back in no time. I just have to be a little bit careful, right now.”
jheinrich@montrealgazette.com
Scrummed by reporters, he refused to say whether he supports the PQ’s plan to set up its own foreign-aid agency, announced Wednesday by international affairs minister Jean-François Lisée.
“Quebec’s values and Canada’s values are similarly progressive on the world scale, “ he said. It’s his job, he added, to make sure “international solidarity” is nurtured for “all of Canada.”
Mulcair was nursing an injured arm — appropriately for a left-winger, his right arm — because of an accident he suffered Wednesday outside his Ottawa home.
“Excuse my left hand — I fell on the ice yesterday,” he apologized before his speech, working the room and shaking hands.
Asked about it later, he joked: “My left is just as strong as it ever was.
“But I went flying on a nice sheet of sheer ice behind my residence in Ottawa yesterday that was covered by a treacherous one-quarter-inch of fresh-fallen powdery snow.
“I’ll be back in no time. I just have to be a little bit careful, right now.”
jheinrich@montrealgazette.com
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