Harper is late to it, just as he was with China, India and other emerging economies. But, given the prolonged American economic crisis, he’s working hard at diversifying Canadian trade.
This is welcome, unless you are among those environmentalists and others who loathe his policy of just shovelling out resources to world markets. To them, Harper is the chief agent for tarsands producers and a mining industry derided for abuses abroad. Yves Engler argues so in his new book, The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy. He also berates Harper for, among other things, being the chief cheerleader for right-wing Israeli policies, and for fancying himself as a chief spear-carrier of a warrior nation.
No question that Harper’s foreign policy has been tainted by ideology, ignorance, incompetence and personal petulance. It has also been hostage to the partisan needs of the Conservative party.
The recent announcement that Canada will be sharing some embassies with Britain is very much in keeping with: (a) Harper’s nostalgia for Canada as a colonial appendage of Great Britain — damn the sentiments of Quebecers, (b) his stated fondness for the English-speaking world — a.k.a. the white man’s club — and (c) his wish to retain the G8 rather than expanding it into the G20 as Barack Obama and others want in order to reflect new global economic realities.
Harper’s commitment to Israel translated into full-throated support for Israeli wars in Lebanon and Gaza; equating Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah with the Nazis; echoing Benjamin Netanyahu’s warlike noises against Iran; and demonizing the United Nations (and snubbing it on a recent visit to New York). These policies contributed to Canada’s failure to win a Security Council seat in 2010.
Harper has been lukewarm to the Arab Spring, much like the right-wing neo-cons who pine for the certainty of dictatorships. Baird’s recent bluster berating the UN for non-action on Syria is just hot air, given that Ottawa is not exactly lining up for military intervention to topple Bashar Assad.
At home, Harper went after groups deemed insufficiently supportive of Israel — the Montreal-based Rights and Democracy, the Christian ecumenical aid group Kairos, the Canadian Arab Federation and Palestine House.
These policies were credited with helping Jason Kenney’s ethnic strategy of winning ridings with Jewish populations.
The Conservatives also wooed the Coptic Christian and Pakistani Canadian Christians in the GTA with a foreign policy pledge: establishing the Office of Religious Freedom. This was widely taken to mean advocating mostly for Christians and other minorities in Muslim nations. While Baird makes perfunctory references to the beleagured Muslim minority in Burma, he has little or nothing to say about plight of other religious groups, such as the Shi’ites in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, or Sufi Muslims in Pakistan. This discredits the core Canadian value of universal human rights.
The Conservatives also wooed the Canadian Hindu community by deepening ties with India, including opening a consulate in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat. Its chief minister (premier), Narendar Modi, was implicated in the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in which 1,000 were killed. Widely derided in India, this Hindu nationalist is barred from entering the U.S. but his supporters in Canada, especially at the Canada India Foundation, have been lobbying Harper to let him come to Canadaon a trade/business visit.
Improving relations with India is very much in Canada’s interest, but whitewashing Modi’s reputation is not.
On China, Harper began with rage at the regime’s lack of respect for human rights. But he has since changed his tune. Our bilateral trade has soared — to $64 billion last year, making China our second-largest trading partner.
On Afghanistan, he started off with macho swagger — “cutting and running is not my way.” He has since cut and run, and no longer talks much about establishing democracy there or saving women and girls.
He cost Canada up to a reported $600 million with his heavy-handed dealings with the United Arab Emirates over a request by the Dubai-based Emirates Airlines for more landing rights in Canada. While he claimed to be acting in the interest of Air Canada, the real story was that it was mostly his petulance that derailed the negotiations.
The U.A.E. cancelled the free use of an airbase as a transit point for Canadian troops and equipment to and from Afghanistan. It also slapped a visa on Canadians, of whom 40,000 are there working mostly for 200 Canadian companies doing business in the Gulf region as well as Asia and Africa.
Mercifully, cooler heads have since prevailed and are restoring the relationship.
Ottawa has also been wooing oil- and gas-rich Kuwait and Qatar. Trade Minister Ed Fast has just finished visiting Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Ottawa is re-engaging Turkey. With its booming $1 trillion economy and long-standing NATO membership, Turkey is a partner Canada needs.
After a series of mishaps over the years, Harper is at last settling into a sustained policy of advancing trade on multiple fronts. It has new free trade agreements with nine countries. It is pursuing one with the European Union. It has new foreign investment agreements with 11 countries, and is negotiating with 11 others. It is fostering better ties with Brazil, Korea and others.This is the most helpful thing the prime minister is doing for Canada on the world stage.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Haroon Siddiqui
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