FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1999. All Rights Reserved
| Viewpoint by Hamish MacAulay Dear Lloyd Axworthy: You obviously need a good dose of prairie fresh air and common sense these days. I have always said that foreign affairs types around the world treat their business as a game so they can pretend the people being affected are nothing more than words and numbers. I never thought a good western boy such as yourself would fall into that trap. Recent events with Kosovo, China and Mexico, however, make me think that you too have been seduced by the attractions of the diplomat’s game. First, you waste my precious Saturday paper reading time with intellectual ramblings on Canada using "soft power" to influence international events. My wife, Mitzy, had to explain to me that soft power wasn’t a toilet paper advertising campaign, but a way for Canada to influence international events even though we lack military or economic clout. For 50 years, I have watched politicians try to make Canada look like a player on the world stage. In all that time, I have never heard a politician try so hard to disguise Canada’s small-country role in world affairs with big words. Your self-gratifying intellectualizing is turning Canada into the laughing stock of the international community. No one ever gained respect by walking softly and carrying a big word. Your latest effort in the exercise of soft power – Chretien’s effort to convince Mexico to improve its human rights record – ended in embarrassment and a not-so-subtle, or surprising, flick from the Mexican government. A week later, the forked-tongue of diplomacy, soft or otherwise, was exposed when Chretien defended the Chinese prime minister from protests over China’s human rights record, a record that is far worse than the abuses in Mexico. As far as Mitzy is concerned, this soft power thing sounds like Canada wants to be an international busybody, and nobody likes a busybody. If you want to make a mark on world affairs, follow the North Korean model – start a nuclear missile program and gain notoriety by firing test missiles at Greenland. The soft power thing went out the window fast enough with this Kosovo crisis. With Art Eggleton leading the way, Canada is perfectly happy to kick a little country’s butt when all the big kids on the block are willing to go along as well. Slobby Milosevic should not be allowed to terrorize the Balkans, but this is a European issue, and the European powers should be left to set the tone. There are too many fingers in the Balkan pie already, so I was quite disturbed to hear that Canada was leading the campaign for a ground war. If that is soft power, you guys must be using only one-ply these days. There are ways Canada can make a difference in the world that don’t involve telling people how to run their country. The Canadian army has proved itself worthy of helping out with domestic disasters such as floods in Manitoba and snow flurries in Toronto. Why can’t they take that role to the world stage? Having a well-trained force able to respond quickly to disasters such as hurricane Mitch would be a wonderful contribution to the world. Canada would also end up with a valued and useful army. Even better, you can leave the work of saving the world to Canadians themselves. Thousands of us are making a difference around the world through organizations designed to improve peoples’ lives directly, not through government interference. Apolitical and helping where people need it the most, us regular Canadians do far more than all of your fancy diplomatic politiking. Anyway, I just want to say you had better get your head away from those conference tables and out into the real world before someone decides to knock a little prairie sense into it. Yours in Nobel Peace Prize hunting, |
| Back To This Issue Table of Contents | Back To Main Index |