Author Topic: Canada's New Foreign Policy  (Read 234 times)

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Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #15 on: August 25, 2017, 06:08:16 am »
When the tories decided they wanted some C17s, how much time did it take to buy them? We're talking here about armored vehicles the army is already thoroughly familiar with and already operates. Just buy the damn things.

This is the problem with government: excessive caution and deliberation that doesn't result in better decisions, but even if it DID the cost of delays outweighs the cost of the occasional mistake.

Business is headed towards a more agile model of management, which will eventually find its way to government... in about 20 years I expect.
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Offline SirJohn

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Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #16 on: January 18, 2018, 06:13:43 pm »
I recognize this subject was mostly about military as opposed to the actual topic name, but the topic name is also worth discussing. I was thinking about it when I mentioned in another thread that we don't seem to be all that popular these days. Was it only a short time ago that Trudeau, rose clad between his shiny teeth, hair flowing in the breeze, pranced out onto the stage with his arms spread wide to greet the world "Ta dahh! CANADA IS BACK!" the Liberals cried.! Forsooth! The world swooned with delight!

And then it yawned and scratched its ass and went away. Trudeau is still prancing and dancing in his ballet slippers and tights, but that pretty hair doesn't seem to be getting the rave reviews any more. The Japanese are mad at us. The Australians are mad at us. The Chinese **** slapped us. The Russians don't like us, the Americans are kicking sand in our faces like we're the proverbial 98 lb weakling at the beach, the Brits are busy with Brexit, the Germans with trying to form a government, and nobody seems to much care about Canada and its pretty boy PM any more.

John Ibbittson noted this in his column the other day, which unfortunately is behind a paywall for you plebes. I'll post the highlights because of that. Not sure what the rules say with regard to that... So anyway, I was wondering, just what happened to all that high flying rhetoric? Has it resulted in Canada having more influence in the world? If so.... where?

There is no way to disguise how much things have gone downhill in the past 12 months. A year ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had powerful allies in the quest to preserve the Western alliance despite the arrival of a rogue U.S. president. Today, those allies are much weakened.
Four months after the German elections, Angela Merkel appears to finally have found a formula for cobbling together a new coalition. But a working government could still be weeks or even months away, and a recent poll has a majority of German voters hoping the veteran chancellor steps down before the next election.

Ms. Merkel hasn't confirmed whether she will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week. Mr. Trump will be there, as will Mr. Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to promote European social solidarity over the isolationist tendencies of the administration in Washington. Mr. Macron may be emerging as a new leader in the fight to defend a united Europe.
But he is also an isolated leader. Germany is currently MIA, and so is Britain, which is tearing itself apart over the decision to leave the European Union, and where Prime Minister Theresa May is distracted and unpopular. Mr. Trump's abrupt decision to cancel a planned visit to Britain has further strained what used to be called the Special Relationship.

Meanwhile, Eastern Europe continues its sad descent. Authoritarian, xenophobic tendencies are on display in Poland and Hungary, and the far right is on the rise in Austria and the Czech Republic. Europe has not been this disunited, angry and unfree since the Berlin Wall fell.
Mr. Trudeau also lacks allies in the Pacific, although he has only himself to blame for that. Relations between Canada and Japan are tense, thanks to Mr. Trudeau's bungling refusal to endorse the revised, 11-country Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement late last year. (Mr. Trump pulled the United States out of the original agreement.)
The Japanese aren't the only ones. The newspaper The Australian reported on Tuesday that Canberra's complaint to the World Trade Organization over alleged Canadian restrictions on wine imports "follows a souring in relations after Mr. Trudeau was accused of derailing the rejuvenated TPP11 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Vietnam."
"When liberals insist that only fascists will defend borders then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals won't do." David Frum