Canada takes another step toward irrelevance

[imec]

When will the 35% of Canadians who vote for the idiots running ruining our country get it??? Our "leader" blames the opposition for this debacle??? So the opposition leader has more influence than the government? Good god almighty!!!

Canada drops bid for UN Security Council seat
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 | 1:43 PM ET

CBC News

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon hit out at Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff after Canada withdrew its bid on Tuesday for a United Nations Security Council seat, saying Canada's opponents could point out Canada 'was not united' in its attempt to gain a seat on the powerful world body. Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon hit out at Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff after Canada withdrew its bid on Tuesday for a United Nations Security Council seat, saying Canada's opponents could point out Canada 'was not united' in its attempt to gain a seat on the powerful world body. (CBC)

Canada abruptly dropped its bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council after coming behind Portugal in second ballot voting Tuesday in New York.

Canada's UN Ambassador John McNee made the surprise announcement after Canada's poor showing on the second ballot — 78 to Portugal's 113. A two-thirds majority is needed to win a seat.

It is the first time that Canada has failed in its bid for a Security Council seat. Canada has been on the Security Council six times, roughly once a decade, since the 1940s. The country's last term ended in 2000. Germany and Portugal have also been on the council previously.

Canada had campaigned for nine years — since its last term on the council — for a seat. In the final days of Tuesday's bid, Canada wined and dined diplomats, offering them gifts of Canadian beer and maple syrup. Canada even had a Mountie in red serge as prop in flown in so the 192 foreign diplomats who were casting ballots could get a photo with him.
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Some observers believe the Harper government's foreign policy is largely responsible for the outcome, including its pro-Israel stance on the Middle East, cutting foreign aid to Africa, and also the move away from UN peacekeeping and toward the Afghan mission.

However, Harper's office placed blame for the disappointment on Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

"I would say a big deciding factor was the fact that Canada's bid did not have unity because we had Mr. Ignatieff questioning and opposing Canada's bid," Dimitri Soudas, Harper's communications director, said in an interview.

"That was a factor that played ultimately against Canada because people outside of Canada were saying, 'Well, Germany and Portugal have a united front, their opposition and their governments seem to be fully, 100 per cent behind this bid.'

"Canada did not have that required advantage. We had an opposition leader that opposed Canada and clearly was not in it for Canada on this one."

Soudas said other factors at play were that the EU and EU-aspiring countries voted as a block for Germany and Portugal. Moreover, some of the commitments made to support Canada did not materialize in the balloting.

Soudas dismissed the idea that the Harper government's unabashed support for Israel may have cost Canada support from Arab countries.

A senior government official said Canada actually got "a good chunk" of the Arab vote.

Germany won one of two seats up for grabs in the first round of voting earlier Tuesday with 128 of 191 ballots cast, while Portugal came second with 122 votes, and Canada collected 114.

Three other two-year terms on the UN's most powerful body went uncontested to South Africa, India and Colombia.

The five new non-permanent council members replace Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda, whose terms end on Dec. 31. The five members elected last year — Bosnia, Brazil, Gabon, Lebanon and Nigeria — will remain on the council until the end of 2011.

Council members are supposed to be chosen on the basis of their contributions to international peace and security, and all three have highlighted their contributions to UN peacekeeping. Canada made particular mention of its involvement in the war in Afghanistan.


Read more: www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/10/12/un-vote012.html#ixzz12AepO9nv

[joanne28]

imec, don't start me on the moron voters who keep Satan Stephen Harper in power.

[Deleted]

You mean Canadian politics are as foolish as French politics?

[hwinpp]

Seems unfair, why does Europe get 2 countries in?

The UN might not have reached its 'use by' date, but the security council in its present form certainly has. It's a circus.

[Deleted]

Most of the countries want to totally revise the Security Council, notably the outdated list of permanent members, but I think Russia and China are totally opposed.

[hwinpp]

Yeah, well, fuck them.

And I think they take turns anyway, saying this or that cannot be changed.

Just like the English, French, US and Russians always passed the buck on German re- unification.

[Deleted]

Well, you know what De Gaulle said about Germany. "I like Germany. I like it so much that it's good that there are two of them."

[bixaorellana]

I am pretty shocked by that article. Not so much by the politics, which just seems like politics as usual, no matter which country, but by the fact that Canada could lose out to Portugal. I'm sorry, but Canada seems like so much more of a solid country -- one that is not eyeball deep in debt, for one thing, has high educational standards, and is not known to be corrupt.

[mich64]

Bix, I agree with your point that Canada's Politics is "politics as usual", and it is a solid country, and it is not in as much debt as others (doing quite well actually), and it does have high educational standards and it is not as corruptible as others. The country is far from perfect but does its best to correct problems where they can.

That said, the three party political system is a major part of the problems that currently exist in Canada. It creates the minority parties to band together to hinder any progress the leading party is trying to make. This happens to whichever party is in power so we have no respect for any of the parties because they are all bullying one another just to regain power and not to work on actual problems. This has caused decades of frustration for the citizens of Canada. Day to day the citizens are actually running this country and they are the ones who make us successful.

Also, Canada does not expect to receive credit from the World community for their efforts domestically or internationally. I believe this has caused Canada to be continually crossed off many lists because they know we will not complain loudly and most likely do as we did, concede. That I am not proud of.

[Deleted]

A number of years ago, I read that Canada was the only country in the world to volunteer for every single UN peacekeeping force. I kind of hope that this is still true, but I have no idea.

[mich64]

I believe it still to be true Kerouac. My father spent his life in the Navy, Air Force, and finally retired to not the private sector, but spent another 15 years working as a civilian for the Government of Canada.

He volunteered for UN duty in 1972 spending 6 months in Egypt. I am very proud of his service to our Country.

My husband lost 2 uncles in WW2, one in Normandy and the other in The Netherlands. The 3 younger brothers all served in the Canadian Military after there deaths, serving in France, Germany, Morocco and Korea. All of them also volunteering for UN duty.

I know that people around the world continue to help whenever needed.

In Chili, 25 Canadians were part of "plan C" but thankfully the miners have been all rescued.