March 8, 2004
Still a rookie in his role as another Canadian United Nations Poster Boy, Prime Minister Paul Martin is starting to learn that there’s a lot more to being an international statesman than mouthing platitudes.
We’re hoping that the scandal-plagued Canadian Prime Minister doesn’t view the UN as an escape hatch. The tabling of his presentation of the Final Report of the United Nations Commission on the Private Sector and Development coincided with the peaking of the Quebec sponsorship scandal, but surely that was just a coincidence.
Now that he’s back from the UN, Martin will host UN Secretary-General Kofi annan at Parliament, an official visit that Canada’s Foreign affairs Critic for the Official Opposition MP Stockwell Day says should "focus on reality not pomp and ceremony."
Martin and Foreign affairs Minister Bill Graham should use annan’s Canadian visit as an opportunity for straight talk on the root causes of global poverty, and its direct links to undemocratic regimes, says Day.
"The historical record is abundantly clear. Those nations which embrace individual freedoms, including freedom of speech, enterprise and the right to private property, have significantly less poverty than regimes which oppose those freedoms."
Day cites a number of examples where people with the same history and ethnic backgrounds have radically different qualities of life depending on their economic and political systems. "Look at the huge difference between South Korea and North Korea, former West Germany and East Germany, Taiwan and Communist China, Israel and its surrounding un-democratic neighbours."
"The United Nations leadership, while respecting the rights of individual nations, should be aggressive in the promotion of freedom-based principles and in exposing those regimes which sentence their people to abject poverty by the prohibition of these freedoms," said Day.
Nor is Day the only elected official keeping an eye on the substance of Martin’s UN role. Deepak Obhrai, MP for Calgary East and the Conservative Senior Critic for International Cooperation, says he’s holding the Prime Minister accountable on implementing the proposals he tabled at the UN.
"I am pleased that Prime Minister Martin is willing to look at ways of using small business as an engine for growth."
Obhrai says he would be willing to support the government in this new direction, however he does have some reservations. "I can only hope that this is not another one of Martin’s empty promises, dating back to the 1993 Red Book."
Headaches are also coming Martin’s way from the Canadian citizenry department.
While annan is being welcomed in the House of Commons, the brightly painted PaulMartinTime.ca van is going on tour. "PaulMartinTime.ca is your source for critical news, analysis and parody of our recently unelected Prime Minister," says an Internet promotion.
Meanwhile, Jean-Paul.ca is asking Canadians to sign up for a class action suit against the sponsorship scandal. "Whether it’s Jean or Paul’s fault, we still lack money to inject into our hospitals, schools and our new generation. The friends of our government owe more than $50 to each Canadian. Click here to sign this Class action."
It may take more than UN international status to restore public faith in Paul Martin.
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