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Archive for the ‘Climate’ Category

For far too long, Canada has been content to let her international image and reputation warmly bask in the residual glow of glories and

Van Doo's Paratroopers in Part Said, 1956

good works long gone past. However, our squeaky clean image is quickly diminishing in the worlds eyes.

Post World War Two, this countries most prominent moment on the world stage arguably came during the Suez Canal Crisis. For his leading in role in organizing the first UN Emergency Force that was then deployed to Egypt, as well as spearheading negotiations amongst the disputing parties, Lester Pearson, then the Minister of External Affairs and later to be Prime Minister, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When the prize was announced, the selection committee stated that Pearson had been responsible for “saving the world.”  Since that time, Lester Pearson has been considered the father of the modern day idea of peacekeeping, and peacekeeping has been a central pillar of ‘Canadianess.’

As the leader of a minority government from 1963-1967, Pearson also oversaw several other key developments in how Canada is perceived, both by herself and the world. The adoption of universal health care, an open immigration system and the current Canadian flag were all realized during Pearson’s tenure as Prime Minister. Pearson’s work has also helped foster the image of Canada as a helping, caring nation. The still as of yet unrealized goal of developed nations contributing 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) towards  official development assistance (ODA) was born of out of a commission that Pearson headed for the World Bank in 1969. Tying these accomplishments together presents a rather typical viewpoint of Canada; a nation of peacekeepers that provide the basics of healthcare to all their citzens. A country that provides high levels of aid to the world, works for the betterment of the planet and also actively encourages immigration into it’s expansive borders,  where new citizens are charged with both assimilating to the tenets of a liberal democracy, while also retaining elements of the culture from ones homeland. Unite all the people who hold those ideals under the red maple leaf and you get: Canadians. These giant progressive leaps forward have served as the foundation for Canada’s stellar international reputation for decades.

Canada’s claim as a peacekeeping nation has been severely undercut by the realities of how many boots we have we have on the ground that are available for peacekeeping missions. As of October 2009, Canada ranked 56th amongst nations with 179 military and police personnel attached to peacekeeping missions. Those numbers put us just ahead of Cote d’Ivore, Cameroon and Zimbabwe. Of course Canada’s contributions to the NATO mission in Afghanistan have severely limited the numbers of bodies that could be made available to peacekeeping missions, but our contributions have been on the decline well before the start of the quagmire in Afghanistan.

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