results of a "major study" concluding that Canada has become an irrelevant force on the international stage More waste of money. I could have told them that.
Posted on 01/25/2005 8:39:13 AM PST by MikeEdwards
Anti-American think tank, The Canadian Institute of International Affairs (CIIA), made news on the front page of the National Post today with results of a "major study" concluding that Canada has become an irrelevant force on the international stage. Canada Free Press rates CIIA as anti-American because it links to left.org on its website. After protesting the inauguration of President George W. Bush last week, left.org now plans on marking Not My President’s Day on February 21.
For the major study, CIIA dispatched Robert Greenhill, the former President of Bombardier Inc. and author of Canada’s role in the wold, on a six-month, fact-finding mission.
While the CIIA study concludes that Canada has lost status in the international arena over the past 15 years, Greenhill says his findings are "exciting". Exciting because given the big challenges facing the world today, Canada was seen among 40 global Pooh-Bahs as being almost "unique" in its ability to address some of those challenges.
On paper CIIA and its ongoing mission look pretty tame. A non-profit, non-government organization, "for 75 years the CIIA has been providing Canadians with a non-partisan, nationwide forum for the discussion, analysis and debate of international affairs".
The CIIA counts itself as "the only private voluntary organization in Canada concerned with the whole range of global issues and has established close relations with business, government, the media, universities, opinion leaders and like-minded institutions throughout the world."
Located at Glendon College, which is part of Toronto’s York University, the CIIA includes on its board of directors, former Liberal cabinet minister, the Honourable Roy MacLaren as its chairman and Senior Parliament Editor of CBC/TV NewsWorld, Dan Newman. . . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
results of a "major study" concluding that Canada has become an irrelevant force on the international stage More waste of money. I could have told them that.
LOL.
I guess the "world stage" is showing comedic tradgedies --- of which surely Canada is now a star, given its pacifist nature.
When has it ever been otherwise?
Unique was just a nice way for 40 global PoohBears to say Cananda can't do jack in its ability to address some of those challenges.
well DUH!!!
They have no military, no economic base without the US, and a population less than that of Califorina and a govenment run by wackos.....
"When has it ever been otherwise?"
WWII
That's right ... before liberalism took hold and under the Red Ensign. We have our work cut out for us no doubt.
Thanks MeanWestTexan
Here is the article they refer to ...
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=28e892cf-955a-4844-b5f5-0ce0080e164c
Canada now a bit player globally, survey finds
World leaders weigh in
Mike Blanchfield
CanWest News Service
January 25, 2005
OTTAWA - A major study involving politicians, diplomats and thinkers from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America has concluded Canada has become an irrelevant force on the international stage, but can regain its edge if it creates a swift and mobile brigade of peacekeepers.
"It was sobering and exciting. Sobering in the sense that we've had a declining impact over the last 15 years. Exciting, in the sense that with some of the big challenges facing the world today, Canada was seen as being almost unique in its ability to address some of them," Robert Greenhill, former president of Bombardier Inc. and author of the study on Canada's role in the world.
Mr. Greenhill spent the last six months interviewing 40 experts from around the globe in what is believed to be one of the most high-level surveys of foreign figures ever conducted on Canada's role in the world. It was sponsored by the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, a non-profit, non-governmental organization headquartered in Toronto.
Subjects included former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger, former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, and a host of other politicians as well as economists, military experts, scholars and senior bureaucrats.
Titled External Voices, the study is to be made public next month, and will coincide with the Martin government's international policy review.
In a presentation yesterday to a government and diplomatic audience at the Foreign Affairs Department, and in an interview, Mr. Greenhill gave a preview of the study's main findings.
Not surprisingly, Canada's international influence is seen as waning in the decade-and-a-half since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.
Many respondents cited the 1989-1992 period under Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney, who fought against apartheid in South Africa, and the late 1990s tenure of former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy, who spearheaded the international ban on land mines, as the only recent periods where Canada made a difference on the world stage.
Canada is seen to have lost its leadership role in the one thing it takes the most pride in: peacekeeping. As one respondent told Mr. Greenhill: "For all intents and purposes, you are no longer here."
Though the world appreciates Canada's military contributions to the Balkans and Afghanistan, the country is seen as a bit player in bringing peace to wartorn parts of the world.
But the international community does not want it to stay that way, Mr. Greenhill says.
"Everybody from the Africans, to the Americans to the Europeans said Canada having an autonomous mobile brigade that could actually get into tough regions quickly and be there for a couple of months at a time, would make a huge difference," he said.
"First, is that few people can do it today. Secondly, those who can, like the Americans and British, are often seen as compromised politically. Whereas Canada coming in with the Maple Leaf, with civility, is seen as very useful."
He said Canada is also seen as having the potential to play a "very special role" in post-conflict reconstruction and said the recent controversy over the delayed deployment of the military's Disaster Assistance Response Team to Sri Lanka following the Indian Ocean tsunami is illustrative of the problems facing the country's ability to respond to international crises.
"It took us ages to get there. And then it was useful," he said.
About one-third of respondents said Canada could use some heavy-airlift capability, but two-thirds said Canada could make do hitching rides with its larger allies or renting commercially, as it does now.
Mr. Greenhill's snapshot of foreign opinion comes as the Defence Department prepares its review of capabilities of the Canadian Forces as part of the broader international policy review.
Prime Minister Paul Martin announced another 5,000 full-time troops for the Forces during last summer's federal election, and said they should form part of a peacekeeping brigade.
Bill Graham, the Defence Minister, has since said those new troops would be added to existing units and would be used to beef up special forces.
___________________________________________________________
To those who say that we didn't need a survey to tell us this ... you are 100%correct.
Here is a comment that provides a bit of a hint that the results are left-leaning ...
"About one-third of respondents said Canada could use some heavy-airlift capability, but two-thirds said Canada could make do hitching rides with its larger allies or renting commercially, as it does now."
Hmmm, no need for heavy lift aircraft, eh?
Call us when you figure out how to run a uboat.
I think we all know that, but at least the liberal government can say "look at all the jobs we created with that study"...That's how things work up there...I should know I lived there for 24 years...
MD
Canada was once a proud nation but then came Trudeu.
.
In fact, I am (and I think all Americans should be) most grateful to the kind and hospitable people of Gander, Newfoundland, who so graciously welcomed into their homes thousands of stranded people en route to the USA on September 11, 2001.
Having lived through eight long years of BillandHillary, I know I would not want to criticize the good people of Canada simply because some of their countrymen have elected true loons to lead them.
But I must say that Canada is not the USA. Canada is a neighbor to the most powerful country on the planet. Other than that, it's difficult to understand why they would be considered to be significant on the world stage.
How this for anti-(think)tank defense?
.
Yes, there are many nice and pro-american canadias. Also Newfounland is more of colony than a province.I dont consider them canadians.
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