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Contributor: paulojorge
Date: 2003-01-22 14:06:59
What makes Canada great is the interdependence and multilateralism. Canada should be a model to the world. That people from difrente cultures and religion can live together. No Clash of Civilazation in Canada, as Samuel H. wrote in his book
Canadians come from diverse backgrounds and we are proud and can make a better world
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Contributor: paulojorge
Date: 2003-01-22 14:56:16
Canada,must show the world that working together is possible. Canadians come from diverse backgrounds,work and live together and made Canada what it is today.
Working together can make a better world. Canada should be the drivers seat in this issue
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Contributor: jeffg
Date: 2003-01-22 16:41:06
Yes, if Canadians didn't work together, we'd all freeze our butts off!
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Contributor: aakeeler
Date: 2003-01-22 20:34:04
Canadian multilateralism, to my mind, means acting like the 'honest broker' we aspire to be -- and sometimes are. In this context, a certain friction with American values (and, though it's much less of an issue, European values) may be used to positive ends: as the 'little guy' of the G8, NATO, the UN, etc., Canada is able to keep the world community focused on the rule of law and civil society -- which is precisely what we're best at. The unique quality of the Canadian voice on the international stage is that we believe in the international community, as an ideal and in practice.
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Contributor: dsteve3
Date: 2003-01-23 15:45:22
We compromise our reputation by participating in illegal actions, like the bombing in Yugoslavia. We really need to focus on the word of the law, and be more vocal about those who break it.
We also need to look into trade law. Currently, there is a huge gulf between us in the priviledged world and the exploited world. Trade agreements and organizations are presently designed and functioning to exaserbate the problem. Struggling nations have their resources and labour exploited by us, while we add insult to injury by preaching about 'responsible economic policy'.
The law must recognize the rights of all humanity, the globe over. We cannot profit from the exploitation of foreign inequity while claiming to be some kind of moral pillar. The charade will cause us real pain in the future, either when we have to surrender our priviledged position, or worse by continueing to pretend that this problem doesn't exsist. By ignoring the plight of destabilized, economically exploited peoples around the world, the sham of our moral superiority casts us as hypocrits. Our word means nothing.
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Contributor: rawlson
Date: 2003-01-24 10:50:20
Canada must continue to embrace a multilateral approach to foreign policy that works within the established frameworks of the international community.
Policies of unilateralism can ultimately result in a lack of meaningful dialogue amongst nations and conflict.
Conflict can be deferred, delayed or resolved through meaningful dialogue within established international institutions.
Canada must make strides to be even move active in organizations such as the UN, the Commonwealth and the G8, to bring peaceful resolution to world conflicts.
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Contributor: benvalla
Date: 2003-01-23 08:25:44
Canada will continue to struggle as a nation as long as interprovincial rivalry is encouraged by covert Government policies. The west dislikes central Canada. Central Canada looks upon the west and eastern Canada as country bumpkins. This overt policy maintains the status quo. We are Canadians and as such we should learn to trust each other but this will never happen until the Federal government changes how they work, listen and apply the policies within their elected mandate. This sad state of affairs will continue into the future as interprovincial rivalries are encouraged by the federal government
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Contributor: amd_1979
Date: 2003-01-22 19:24:07
Although it has many affiliations with New York, the International Herald Tribune (http://www.iht.com) is produced/published out of Paris. Please check them out for more unbiased reporting of current events.
An article that made me think hard about Bush and his policies, ideas and convictions can be found here: http://www.iht.com/articles/84078.html I highly recommend it!
Please ask meaninful questions of each other, of your leaders, of yourself before you make decisions, and before you throw your support behind anyone. The best thing about being Canadian is the ability to be objective when it comes to world-impacting issues like Bush's campaign against Iraq.
We have to remember that there are no right or wrong answers, but that there are some solutions that are far better than others for all parties involved. And those solutions will only be reached by being as informed as possible about all the outcomes and consequences.
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Contributor: rmk
Date: 2003-01-23 08:47:16
While the IHT article is very insightful and does account for a number of underlying factors for the agressive action towards Iraq, let's not forget what is at stake here. Maintianing the U.S. economy is of the utmost importance to any administration and can be lost in the rhetoric of why. It is this economy and the lifestyles that go with it that have created these situations. We enjoy a certain lifestyle here because of what the U.S. can do abroad.
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Contributor: dsteve3
Date: 2003-01-23 10:25:42
By this reasoning, we should adopt an imperialist attitude and merely conquer any region of the planet for our profit. In fact, this is exactly what we have been doing. Anyone who is actually informed about our role in Yugoslavia, where we, as partners in the NATO bombings, successfully destroyed over 300 schools and only 14 tanks. How did destroying Yugoslavia's infrastructure prevent ethnic cleansing? It didn't, in fact it helped to escalate that problem.
We have been complicit in the crimes that have plagued our world, while pretending that we are some benificent influence. Our role in the G7/G8 has not resulted in moderating the escalating turmoil, but that of deceptive support of destructive foreign influences.
We have precious little time left before our imalgamation (voluntarily or otherwise) into a greater American jurisdiction, where our interests will continue to erode. The regions of this country have sufferred at the hands of invisible influences, which hide behind the spontaneously invalid title of "conspiracies".
Our utter lack of national responsibility to our precious finite resources combined with our support of oppressive measures around the world, from Korea to the Gulf, has shown the shambles of our democratic institutions. It demonstrates how shallow our pretence is to furthering world peace. We live in a world that has been greatly influenced by our ACTIONS, which in fact are farthest from our beliefs. The time to actually doing something about this is quickly coming to a close.
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Contributor: rmk
Date: 2003-01-23 14:22:45
I agree that we are allowing our natural resources to be swallowed up without protecting our own interests. It is this very type of behavior that has created this "follower" stance. Regardless, what I am disturbed by is the lack of respect we have for our neighbours to he south. Everyone seems to believe that they are the only resource gluttons in the world, when, in reality, we use more per capita than any other country. The relationship we have with the U.S. is closer than geography shows.
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Contributor: Robert
Date: 2003-01-25 17:02:45
I completely agree with this comment. The amount of people which on a daily basis ridicule the United States is astounding. How different are we from them? Have we forgotten that we fought the same fights, grew in the same time period, or have encountered much the same problems? True, we have had different approaches to different problems which can be attributed to our resource differences. The US has much deeper pockets than we do, and so they deal with problems differently. But, while they have on occasion stooped to acts which are shameful, they have more often than not followed their conscience. More than any other superpower in the past, the US has adhered to the principles on which it was founded. For this we should respect and applaud them, if for nothing else. I fear we are merely the armchair quarterbacks of the world.
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Contributor: Kdog
Date: 2003-02-24 19:46:19
Thanks for your defense of the US. I am an American and while I do agree that we have made errors, I am proud of my countries heritage overall, and one of our strengths I feel is the ability to overcome mistakes and try to stay true to certain ideals.
I agree that we are not that diferent, indeed we are more alike than any other two English speaking countries in the world. We share one the two greatest areas of natural resouce in the world, and the greatest area of economic opportunity and human liberty in the world.
Which is not to say that we dont have things to work on together. I am in the Air National Guard as a part time airmen. I am proud to learn that there are Canadian forces assisting in the Coalition to liberate the people of Iraq from the Bath ruling party led by Hussein. I hope that Canada will take a larger and more proactive role in North American security in the future as well.
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Contributor: CdninCali
Date: 2003-01-27 01:22:21
Applaud the statement.. We have let our natrual resources get eatten up. I think in some ways we need to stop that flow and become much more conservative with out resources. In some ways, I am lead to believe, that the NAFTA act does not allow Canada to slow the flow the of its resources. We need to find a solution to this problem. It feels like we sold our selves out in some ways. We need to take responsibility as a whole society to find out what is really going on. The love of my Mother country means more to me than I could discribe, as my Canadian Pride in enormous and I do whole heartedly believe we can keep our Canadian personality in this world. I agree with the statement made that we are looking more and more like our Imperlist's neighbours and this has got to stop. We share a lot with our neighbours as well but we can be very different than them as well.. Lets keep this North Country strong and free, and lets keep our identity.
Tim...
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Contributor: DaveWillard
Date: 2003-01-23 17:14:58
I think we should differentiate between multilaterism and multiculturalism. Yes, Canada has been very successful in accomodating peoples of various ethnic backgrounds traditionally. This is especially true with peoples with the common denominator of Christian-Judeo ethics upon which values this country thrived. More recently however we are seeing people immigrating to Canada from non-traditional areas of the world with cultural values not necessarily in tune or even compatible with Canadian culture and values. I have absolutely no problem respecting any man regardless of colour, slant of eye, or who he calls God. My fear is that we are setting ourselves up for a future fall as the influence of these alternate values begin to come into conflict and effect our law and way of life. There is evidence of this already happening. Challenges through human rights to some of very principles that made this land great and provided for the prosperity, peace and harmony that attracted these people here in the first place. There is a lot to be said for the phrase that, "A nation is defined by its people".
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Contributor: manx
Date: 2003-01-29 12:06:19
Unfortunately countries are somewhat in a state of constant competition that causes conflict.
FM
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Contributor: nickie
Date: 2003-01-29 21:20:46
What a bunch of nonsense. Time to grow up and stop being so sanctimonious. I would guide you to the Toronto star this day:
Moral superiority vs. moral weakness
By Brian Lee Crowley
CANADIAN foreign policy seems to be based on the principle that what the world needs most is a country that hangs back from the world's conflicts, that takes no sides, and has nothing at stake except its own high-mindedness.
In our fantasies, the world waits breathlessly for this country to rush out from its splendid isolation each time these conflicts reach the boil, so that it can even-handedly scold both sides, condemning all violence and excesses equally, and reminding everyone that all problems would be solved if only everybody were, well, nicer.
That country is, of course, Canada itself. Isolated as we are, by geography and the American military shield, we run absolutely no risk of being seriously threatened militarily by any other country, although terrorist outrages remain a real possibility.
And facing absolutely no real dangers, we consider ourselves perfectly suited to dole out sanctimonious advice to others whose very existence is threatened, and who do not have the luxury of getting their foreign and defence policy wrong. We reserve our greatest moral superiority not for those furthest from our own ideals, but rather for our friends and allies, who often defend principles in which Canadians deeply believe, in circumstances so trying that we can only dimly imagine them.
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