Op-Ed
Commentary
Jamaica
Observer :
Canada's Mr Harper and the Caribbean
Editorial
We
suggested prior to the vote that Jamaica and her partners in
the Caribbean Community needed to pay close attention to last
week's general election in Canada.
Now,
we feel it of even greater importance that they pay attention
to its outcome and follow closely how events unfold in Ottawa.
For it is a time of great uncertainty for a partner which this
region could trust implicitly.
Unfortunately,
in recent times trust, especially in one significant and important
circumstance, was placed under severe stress. There have, of
course, been attempts to repair that relationship. With a new
government in Ottawa, though, the Caribbean has good reason
to be circumspect about how events will unfold.
For
the fact is Mr Stephen Harper, the new prime minister, and the
Conservative Party which he leads, are unknown quantities. Or,
perhaps more to the point, no one, not least us, is sure which
quantity Mr Harper and the Conservatives represent.
When
Canadians previously voted in a national election 18 months
ago and Mr Paul Martin's Liberals scraped home with a minority
administration, Mr Harper was clear where he stood - on the
hard right of Canadian politics. His agenda, by and large, was
congruent with that of the administration that leads Canada's
powerful neighbour to the south.
Mr
Harper, for instance, had no quarrel with the war in Iraq, which
the majority of Canadians opposed; he was willing to bring Canada
under the umbrella of a kind of Star Wars defence system; he
was edgy about abortion and other liberal agenda issues and
so on.
This
time round, Mr Harper appeared a new package, playing down the
right-wing agenda and focussing more on the sleaze that dogged
the Liberals, who were in government for a dozen years.
In
the end, Canadians ignored their ongoing economic prosperity,
achieved during the time of the Liberals, and punished the ruling
party for the corruption that marred the time of Mr Martin's
predecessor, Jean Chretien. Mr Martin was unable to mount neither
effective nor credible defence.
The
issue from a foreign policy stand point now is which of the
Mr Harpers will emerge in the months ahead. Until Mr Chretien's
major faux pas on Haiti in rejecting Caricom's thoughtful and
nuanced initiative to end the constitutional crisis and prevent
the coup d'etat against Mr Aristide, Canada could be depended
on for foreign policy responses that appreciated and respected
the concerns of small, weak and vulnerable states. Indeed, the
Canadians, in framing policy, made the point that they were
not clones of their powerful neighbour. Which, of course made
sense.
For
the Canadians, given the relative power between themselves and
their neighbour, appreciated the concern of the underdog. Moreover,
its membership of the Commonwealth gave it a textured understanding
of the concept of plurality and insistence of poor, weak countries
on the right to self-assertion.
The
issue now is whether a Canadian government led by Mr Harper
will envision this context or walk heavily and in step with
an ideology that insists on the assertion of power as a credible
tool of foreign policy. Time will tell.
Hopefully,
though, the innate good sense of Canadians will prevail. As
well as the fact that Mr Harper's Conservatives don't have the
parliamentary votes to go on adventures without the help of
others.
