Say It Ain't So, Joe!

It's not often a former Prime Minister attends a committee meeting, so when the Right Honorable Joe Clark quietly shuffled into our Foreign Affairs Committee room this week a certain sense of respectability filled the air. He took his seat in front of the committee and launched into his assessment of the state of affairs of Canada's influence in the world. His quiet demeanor quickly gave way to fiery insight.He opened by stating he still believed that this country had an important role to play in the world, but that with the rise of countries like China and India we would have to "raise our game" if we hoped to have international influence. Sadly, he reflected, we appear to be heading the other way. His own research showed that while the Ministry of Defence has received an 8.29% budget increase, our diplomatic and development priorities failed to keep pace - CIDA has stayed roughly the same, whereas the Foreign Affairs Ministry has lost 17%!The old sage wondered why we would cut back in Foreign Affairs, when by the year 2050 countries such as Vietnam will have economies larger than Canada's and will themselves be forces with which to be reckoned. How long can we hold on to our international reputation if we fail to emphasize our efforts at diplomacy and development?But suddenly we are "at sea," emphasizing our role in Afghanistan to the detriment of other international initiatives. While Mr. Clark forcefully commented that, with the rise of other key economic players, we could only hold our own as expert purveyors of diplomacy and development, the reality was that we have been in abatement in these key areas for the last two decades. The Conservatives on the committee looked decidedly uncomfortable hearing this from one of their own, but we on the Liberal side also had to accept some of the blame ... and we knew it.The former prime minister highlighted the emergence of numerous non-governmental organizations and activists who are rushing to fill in the vacuum left by government neglect. They are more nimble and able to react more quickly and therefore he observed that they are playing a larger role. "But they are not government," he affirmed forcefully. "This is still an institutional world and only state actors can bring about the kinds of change required to set the world on a different path." He pointed out that this country's leadership on the landmine agreement had peaked at a certain level and could only move forward when former Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy lent the weight of government to the equation - then it suddenly succeeded. Mr. Clark left us in no doubt that we are in the process of losing our way and that unless we recalibrate our priorities, we will be left behind by emergent economic powers stemming from Asia.Note: When Mr. Clark stated that he couldn't understand why the Harper government pulled much of its aid out of Africa, there was great discomfort on the Conservative side, causing one such member to confront Mr. Clark by saying the present government still donated hugely to Africa. On the way out, I overheard one of their members say that he had to get that "out there" because blogger Kady O'Malley had been in the room and he hoped she covered what he said. Repeatedly, politics and perception trump reality.