The Liberal Party has a plan to restore Canada’s leadership in the world. You can read it here.
Yesterday, Canada suffered an historic humiliation at the United Nations. For the first time ever, we failed to win a seat on the Security Council.
The Conservative government responded with their usual dignity and class. Rather than take responsibility for their defeat—and the five years of Conservative foreign policy that preceded it—they blamed Michael Ignatieff. What a shocker.
At a hastily-called press conference at UN headquarters, with members of the world press in attendance, Harper spokesman Lawrence Cannon launched a low-brow partisan attack against the Leader of the Opposition. (Meanwhile, the members of the world press in attendance seemed to have absolutely no idea what Mr. Cannon was going on about.)
It didn’t seem to occur to Stephen Harper & Co. that playing crass domestic politics on the world stage — quite literally inside the UN — is not a clever way to assert your diplomatic prowess. Indeed, the Conservatives don’t seem to realize that their partisan buffoonery is one reason they failed to win a seat on the Security Council yesterday.
Remember when Stephen Harper used his press conference at last year’s G8 summit to attack Michael Ignatieff? It was a gaffe, and Stephen Harper was forced to apologize.
Yesterday’s vote was five years in the making. After a half-decade of Conservative foreign policy missteps, this was the exclamation point. Canada failed to win a seat on the Security Council for the first time since the UN was founded.
We can move on from yesterday’s humiliation. Restoring Canada’s leadership in the world is one of the Liberal Party’s three core priorities, alongside learning and care. Michael Ignatieff announced the Liberal foreign policy platform in a speech last June. It’s called Canada in the World: A Global Networks Strategy, and you can read it here.
As Michael Ignatieff said yesterday, “Liberals believe that we need to return to a leadership role in UN peace operations, renew our focus on conflict prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, restore our commitment to Africa and to empowering women in developing countries, and remain an active partner in multilateral institutions. Canada should be a leading advocate for UN reform, and we should bring to bear the strength of our history, the global connections of our population, and the extraordinary experience of our military to build a safer world. We can – and must – move forward from here, with the determination to lead the world again.”
After yesterday, it seems that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives believe that when Michael Ignatieff speaks, the world listens. They should do the same.
- A.G.
P.S.: If you’ve got a question for Michael Ignatieff, email it to openmike@email.liberal.ca or tweet it @M_Ignatieff. Later today, he’ll be answering your (unscripted!) questions live from Beth Emeth Synagogue in Toronto. Tune in and listen live at http://www.liberal.ca/openmike, beginning at 6:00 p.m. EDT. I’ll be live-blogging all the action, so you never have to miss a moment of the Open mike town hall tour.
Adam Goldenberg is Michael Ignatieff’s speechwriter. Follow him at http://twitter.com/adamgoldenberg. Email him at adam@email.liberal.ca.
