National PostCANADA
'I hope to be able to establish a relationship with more maturity." So said Prime Minister Stephen Harper (in French) on the eve of his Cancun summit meeting with Presidents Vicente Fox and George W. Bush, and the job is already well begun. Harper's visit to Afghanistan, his independent decision to curtail funding to a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, and his clear, firm negotiating stance at Cancun have demonstrated maturity in practice.
And at just this crucial moment, there has come an important and vital new book to offer all Canadians a guide to maturity as a policy: Roy Rempel's Dreamland: How Canada's Pretend Foreign Policy Has Undermined Sovereignty, just out from McGill-Queen's University Press.
Most Canadians by now appreciate that Canada has lost much influence over the world over the past 15 years -- indeed, the Martin government more or less admitted as much in its International Policy Statement of 2005. Rempel argues that the situation has deteriorated even further: "Canada is becoming internationally irrelevant. Within North America, it is at risk of becoming little more than an 'object' rather than an independent 'actor' in terms of its relationship with the United States."
Or, to put it even more bluntly, "over the past decade, Canada's sovereignty has been steadily eroding, and Canada is increasingly confronted with ever narrowing policy options."
Canada's problems, in Rempel's telling, extend far beyond the devastation done to the Canadian military during the Chretien/Martin years. Canada has suffered from a deformed strategic culture, which refuses to assert Canadian interests -- and instead treats foreign affairs as a theatre for the acting out of impulses aimed at domestic political constituencies.
Look for example at Canada's foreign aid program.
"In 2005, 155 states and territories in virtually all parts of the world received some form of Canadian assistance .... 90 of those countries or territories received bilateral Canadian country-to-country assistance of less than $5-million a year, and 54 got less than $1-million."
With a record like that, "Canada is not a 'global power' ... as much as it is a 'global dabbler.' What Canadians need to understand is that if this country wants to have real influence on a particular problem in a way that actually furthers the national interest, then much greater focus in areas where we can actually make a difference will be required. The process of choosing where to focus must, in turn, be grounded on a clearer understanding of just what the national interest is."
During the Chretien and Martin years, the very term "national interest" lost its meaning. Rempel argues that Canadian foreign policy must begin by acceptance of the stark fact that Canada is a North American power, bound to the United States by common interests and shared values. And he offers this subtle observation: one of Canada's most important instrumentalities of power is the perception by others that Canada enjoys a uniquely close relationship to the United States.
So, ironically, those Canadian anti-Americans who try to assert national independence by distancing Canada from the United States have succeeded only in weakening Canada and reducing its independence. "The more political 'distance' that Canada establishes from the United States, the less relevant [Canada] will be .... For Canada, at every level, it is influence in Washington that matters most."
But that's not the end of the irony. For the surest way for Canadians to increase their influence in Washington is by rebuilding Canada's ability to act independently. A disarmed Canada is a dependent Canada, and a dependent Canada is an ignored Canada. The anti-American Chretien government transformed Canada from a partner of the United States into a protectorate; the task ahead for the Harper government is to rearm Canada, rediscover the national interest, and regain national sovereignty.
Ballistic missile defense (BMD) symbolizes the errors of the past. As Rempel observes, when the Martin government refused to participate in the U.S. BMD program, it signaled that Canada "is in fact prepared to see the United States take all the decisions; that [Canada] neither wants nor needs any input."
An adult country must make adult decisions, from contributing to its own defense to refusing to contribute to a terrorist-run government in the Palestinian Authority. The Harper government has committed itself to the policy. Roy Rempel has now provided the theory. His book is essential reading for this new, exciting, and hopeful moment in Canadian history.
http://server09.densan.ca/archivenews/060404/npt/060404cg.htm
'I hope to be able to establish a relationship with more maturity." So said Prime Minister Stephen Harper (in French) on the eve of his Cancun summit meeting with Presidents Vicente Fox and George W. Bush, and the job is already well begun. Harper's visit to Afghanistan, his independent decision to curtail funding to a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, and his clear, firm negotiating stance at Cancun have demonstrated maturity in practice.
And at just this crucial moment, there has come an important and vital new book to offer all Canadians a guide to maturity as a policy: Roy Rempel's Dreamland: How Canada's Pretend Foreign Policy Has Undermined Sovereignty, just out from McGill-Queen's University Press.
Most Canadians by now appreciate that Canada has lost much influence over the world over the past 15 years -- indeed, the Martin government more or less admitted as much in its International Policy Statement of 2005. Rempel argues that the situation has deteriorated even further: "Canada is becoming internationally irrelevant. Within North America, it is at risk of becoming little more than an 'object' rather than an independent 'actor' in terms of its relationship with the United States."
Or, to put it even more bluntly, "over the past decade, Canada's sovereignty has been steadily eroding, and Canada is increasingly confronted with ever narrowing policy options."
Canada's problems, in Rempel's telling, extend far beyond the devastation done to the Canadian military during the Chretien/Martin years. Canada has suffered from a deformed strategic culture, which refuses to assert Canadian interests -- and instead treats foreign affairs as a theatre for the acting out of impulses aimed at domestic political constituencies.
Look for example at Canada's foreign aid program.
"In 2005, 155 states and territories in virtually all parts of the world received some form of Canadian assistance .... 90 of those countries or territories received bilateral Canadian country-to-country assistance of less than $5-million a year, and 54 got less than $1-million."
With a record like that, "Canada is not a 'global power' ... as much as it is a 'global dabbler.' What Canadians need to understand is that if this country wants to have real influence on a particular problem in a way that actually furthers the national interest, then much greater focus in areas where we can actually make a difference will be required. The process of choosing where to focus must, in turn, be grounded on a clearer understanding of just what the national interest is."
During the Chretien and Martin years, the very term "national interest" lost its meaning. Rempel argues that Canadian foreign policy must begin by acceptance of the stark fact that Canada is a North American power, bound to the United States by common interests and shared values. And he offers this subtle observation: one of Canada's most important instrumentalities of power is the perception by others that Canada enjoys a uniquely close relationship to the United States.
So, ironically, those Canadian anti-Americans who try to assert national independence by distancing Canada from the United States have succeeded only in weakening Canada and reducing its independence. "The more political 'distance' that Canada establishes from the United States, the less relevant [Canada] will be .... For Canada, at every level, it is influence in Washington that matters most."
But that's not the end of the irony. For the surest way for Canadians to increase their influence in Washington is by rebuilding Canada's ability to act independently. A disarmed Canada is a dependent Canada, and a dependent Canada is an ignored Canada. The anti-American Chretien government transformed Canada from a partner of the United States into a protectorate; the task ahead for the Harper government is to rearm Canada, rediscover the national interest, and regain national sovereignty.
Ballistic missile defense (BMD) symbolizes the errors of the past. As Rempel observes, when the Martin government refused to participate in the U.S. BMD program, it signaled that Canada "is in fact prepared to see the United States take all the decisions; that [Canada] neither wants nor needs any input."
An adult country must make adult decisions, from contributing to its own defense to refusing to contribute to a terrorist-run government in the Palestinian Authority. The Harper government has committed itself to the policy. Roy Rempel has now provided the theory. His book is essential reading for this new, exciting, and hopeful moment in Canadian history.
http://server09.densan.ca/archivenews/060404/npt/060404cg.htm
