CLARK: How We Lead: Canada in a Century of Change
Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 8:57 amCLARK: How We Lead: Canada in a Century of Change
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Joe Clark's new book: Canada is the country that 'lectures and leaves'
CAMPBELL CLARK, THE GLOBE AND MAIL, Friday, Nov. 01 2013
http://tinyurl.com/lbzryqs
As if the Senate scandal wasn’t enough, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper gathers the Conservative Party faithful in Calgary this weekend, he may also have to deal with a broadside delivered by the longest-serving Tory foreign minister in Canadian history.
Joe Clark, who was minister from 1984 to 1991 (as well as prime minister for nine months in 1979-80), is releasing a book next week that is sharply critical of the Harper government’s foreign policy. He writes that Ottawa has squandered Canada’s reputation for bridging divides and has abandoned diplomacy by closing its embassy in Iran and boycotting the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka over that country’s human-rights record.
Mr. Clark, who would likely note he was a Progressive Conservative, says former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s description of her country’s approach to the Libyan civil war – “leading from behind” – demonstrated that even a superpower needs alliances.
Our country, Mr. Clark argues in How We Lead: Canada in a Century of Change, should “lead from beside.”
Your book has some sharp criticisms of Stephen Harper’s foreign policy. You say his government has broken with the past consensus. So what have they turned away from, in your view?
What they’ve turned away from is diplomacy as a principal instrument [of foreign relations] and international development as a major preoccupation. They are not much interested in either, and they’ve demonstrated that. Their emphasis has been insistently on the military, and latterly on trade – they came to that late, but they are pursuing it, I think, effectively. But there’s been a very sharp departure from the concepts of, you name any prime minister, really, since William Lyon Mackenzie King.
What do you think the cost has been?
Well, for one thing, almost anyone who works in international relations would argue that Canada’s influence has declined in the last six years, because we are seen as the country that lectures and leaves. Most recently in Sri Lanka, we are not there. We’ve pulled out of Iran at a time when a presence there is most important. We’ve alienated a very significant element of the international community in our hard line on environmental issues.
Canada is very much needed in an age defined increasingly by cultural conflict, and an age in which it is no longer possible for single nations to assume leadership to the degree that was the case before. There is a need for the concept of “leading from beside,” and no country has been better at that than Canada.
What do you mean by “lecturing and leaving”?
They’re not doing the diplomacy. They prefer the podium to the playing field. They see foreign policy as something you should talk about in terms that forcefully express your point of view.
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[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... e15215729/ ]
Joe Clark's new book: Canada is the country that 'lectures and leaves'
CAMPBELL CLARK, THE GLOBE AND MAIL, Friday, Nov. 01 2013
http://tinyurl.com/lbzryqs
As if the Senate scandal wasn’t enough, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper gathers the Conservative Party faithful in Calgary this weekend, he may also have to deal with a broadside delivered by the longest-serving Tory foreign minister in Canadian history.
Joe Clark, who was minister from 1984 to 1991 (as well as prime minister for nine months in 1979-80), is releasing a book next week that is sharply critical of the Harper government’s foreign policy. He writes that Ottawa has squandered Canada’s reputation for bridging divides and has abandoned diplomacy by closing its embassy in Iran and boycotting the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka over that country’s human-rights record.
Mr. Clark, who would likely note he was a Progressive Conservative, says former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s description of her country’s approach to the Libyan civil war – “leading from behind” – demonstrated that even a superpower needs alliances.
Our country, Mr. Clark argues in How We Lead: Canada in a Century of Change, should “lead from beside.”
Your book has some sharp criticisms of Stephen Harper’s foreign policy. You say his government has broken with the past consensus. So what have they turned away from, in your view?
What they’ve turned away from is diplomacy as a principal instrument [of foreign relations] and international development as a major preoccupation. They are not much interested in either, and they’ve demonstrated that. Their emphasis has been insistently on the military, and latterly on trade – they came to that late, but they are pursuing it, I think, effectively. But there’s been a very sharp departure from the concepts of, you name any prime minister, really, since William Lyon Mackenzie King.
What do you think the cost has been?
Well, for one thing, almost anyone who works in international relations would argue that Canada’s influence has declined in the last six years, because we are seen as the country that lectures and leaves. Most recently in Sri Lanka, we are not there. We’ve pulled out of Iran at a time when a presence there is most important. We’ve alienated a very significant element of the international community in our hard line on environmental issues.
Canada is very much needed in an age defined increasingly by cultural conflict, and an age in which it is no longer possible for single nations to assume leadership to the degree that was the case before. There is a need for the concept of “leading from beside,” and no country has been better at that than Canada.
What do you mean by “lecturing and leaving”?
They’re not doing the diplomacy. They prefer the podium to the playing field. They see foreign policy as something you should talk about in terms that forcefully express your point of view.
MORE:
[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... e15215729/ ]
- - - -
More Related to this Story (LINKS on Original URL above)
Information collected by Canadian spy agency could be vulnerable, watchdog warns
Rohozinski and Muggah Spying on foreign firms requires the consent of all Canadians
Spying allegations throw cold water on Canada's trade and business plans in Brazil