I’m here today to talk to you about Canada’s place in the world—how we’ve lost it and how we can get it back.

The world is changing, and Canada has to change with it. Our identity as a people will be defined by the place we find in the world that is taking shape on the other side of this global recession.

Canada was born inside two Empires, the French, the British, and we have matured beside the most powerful nation in history, the United States.

What happens to our identity, our place in the world, when the centre of gravity shifts to Asia? When India and China become the powerhouses of the global economy?

We should have nothing to fear from the rise of these new powers. A new world creates new opportunities for Canada. Opportunities to trade, to learn, and to create the global architecture of security for this emerging new world. But only if we have leadership that seizes these opportunities.

Ce que nous faisons à l’étranger contribue à nous définir. C’est le reflet de notre personnalité. C’est le reflet de ce que nous pouvons apporter au monde pour qu’il soit meilleur. C’est le prolongement de ce que nous sommes comme peuple.

By and large, Canadian politicians scarcely utter a word about Canada in the world on the hustings. It doesn’t seem important. It is.

After the last four years, it’s hard to remember how much Canada once mattered.

Nous avons aidé à créer les grandes institutions qui sont l’architecture du monde d’aujourd’hui. La Banque mondiale, le Fonds monétaire international. Le GATT, maintenant l’Organisation mondiale du commerce. L’OTAN.

Multilateralism was the Canadian mantra. In 1956, Lester Pearson found a way out of the Suez Crisis and made peacekeeping our vocation. When he won the Nobel Peace Prize the next year, the Nobel committee said “he’d saved the world.” We cheered.

In the post-war era, we became the world’s leading peacekeepers. Up to 1988, there was not a single mission that we didn’t join. At the same time, we went to war in Korea, the Persian Gulf and Kosovo. We went to war when we had to. We kept the peace when we could. Blue helmets became an emblem of our identity.

En 1950, nous étions là pour le Plan de Colombo qui a mis en place le premier programme d’aide international. C’était Pearson qui avait proposé que les pays les plus riches du monde s’engagent à verser point-sept pour cent de leur richesse à l’aide internationale. En 1975, nous avions fait la moitié du chemin. Et à Kananaskis en 2002, nous avons pris un nouvel engagement envers l’Afrique.

An engaged, muscular internationalism was not the exception for Canada; it was the rule. It was us.

What we did in the world wasn’t about one party or one policy. Under both Liberals and Progressive Conservatives, Canada led proudly on the world’s stage.

Pierre Trudeau a ouvert ses bras à la Chine. Jean Chrétien a fait la promotion de l’Afrique. Paul Martin s’est fait défenseur du G-20. John Diefenbaker a accru l’aide internationale et Brian Mulroney s’est fermement opposé à l’apartheid en Afrique du Sud. Par le passé, il y avait un consensus entre les partis sur le rôle du Canada dans le monde.

Malheureusement, mes amis, ce consensus s’est envolé. Pour le gouvernement conservateur de Stephen Harper la scène internationale n’existe que pour scorer des points sur la scène domestique. Et notre crédibilité sur la scène internationale s’affaiblit en conséquence.

The Conservatives are giving up Canada’s place in the world.

We have a prime minister who thinks so little of foreign affairs that he changes foreign ministers the way he changes shirts. We’ve had four in just three-and-a-half years. They come and go with the seasons.

Our friends abroad see this revolving door. They note our silence in international councils and ask: Where is Canada?

Under Stephen Harper, we are no longer the world’s leading peacekeeper; we aren’t even in the top thirty. We are no longer among the world’s ten leading donors. Worse, the Conservatives have abandoned Africa,.

Quand nos services étrangers ne sont pas ignorés ou insultés, ils sont muselés. Nos budgets à l’international ont été coupés. Nous nous sommes même retirés de la diplomatie culturelle en laissant tomber la promotion de nos artistes, de nos acteurs, de nos auteurs à l’étranger. C’est notre âme que nous abandonnons.

Stephen Harper has so diminished our stature that we are struggling to win a seat on the Security Council of the United Nations—the seat we’ve held every decade since the founding of the UN.

Nous ne défendons même plus les droits des Canadiens à l’étranger. Ce sont nos concitoyens. Mais si elle s’appelle Souad Mohammed, notre gouvernement l’abandonne. Ce que moi je dis, Mesdames, Messieurs, c’est qu’un Canadien est un Canadien est un Canadien.

We were once the world’s great mediators. Now, in the Middle East, in Africa and in Sri Lanka, we have ceded our place to others.

Sous la gouverne des conservateurs, le Canada a renié sa signature au bas du protocole de Kyoto. Et qui peut dire jusqu’où nous descendrons si ce sont les Conservateurs qui nous représentent à la prochaine conférence sur les changements climatiques en décembre à Copenhague?

Under this government, Canada is becoming the country that dares not speak its name.

We still have the world’s finest diplomats. Louis Guay and Bob Fowler remind us just how tough and courageous our best can be.

We still have the world’s bravest soldiers, one hundred and thirty of whom have died in Afghanistan.

Aujourd’hui, nous rendons hommage au soldat Patrick Lormand, mort lors d’une mission hier, à Kandahar.

We still feed the hungry and treat the sick around the world.

Our diplomats, soldiers, aid workers—still distinguish themselves and our country every day, in every corner of the world.

They deserve a government that does the same.

Nothing seems to matter to this government—not the ascent of China and India, not the rights of our accused compatriots, not a seat in the United Nations, not the threat of global warming. Anything goes.

This is tragic. More than ever, Canada must see itself as a nation of the world, at home in the world. The world must live in Canada and Canada must live in the world.

To reach our potential our government must catch up to what Canada has already become: one of the most international societies on earth.

Nearly twenty percent of our people were born in another country. Nearly two million of us work and live abroad at any given time. We speak all the languages of the world.

Instead of lamenting these facts, instead of insinuating that someone who has lived overseas is somehow less of a Canadian, we should celebrate all our citizens. We should be more international, not less. More open to the world, not less. More adventurous, not less.

We need a government that catches up with the Canadian people’s own internationalism and inspires it to further heights.

This means asking more of our government and ourselves, not less. Raising expectations of our performance overseas, not lowering them.

Let me set out the elements of a Liberal strategy for a big Canada, an ambitious Canada, a Canada that leads by example.

Our Canada will champion an agenda of international governance reform. Our priority, as the host of the G-8 summit next year in Huntsville, will be to expand the G-8 to include the countries of the G-20.

And to ensure a truly inclusive global forum, we would offer to host and fund a permanent G-20 secretariat in Canada.

Our Canada will lead the world in rethinking financial regulatory reform. Our banking system, born of Canadian prudence, is the envy of the world. Our central banker, Mark Carney, is an exemplary public servant. We can take the lead here.

Our Canada will renew our relationship with the US. At a time when Europe is tearing down its borders, North America is raising fences between friends. The number of visitors to Canada from the United States has fallen to its lowest level in a generation. The impact on cross border trade will hurt the United States as much as it hurts us.

Our Canada will engage with the Americans in strengthening not weakening the North American economic space.

Notre Canada assumera un rôle en Afghanistan après 2011. Un rôle différent. Ça veut dire un engagement humanitaire pour aider à construire ce pays et consolider les progrès durement accomplis.

Our allies have appointed high-level envoys to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Stephen Harper has refused. We need to be fully part of the effort to restore stability. Our troops have done us proud. Now we must commit our full diplomatic muscle to the same ends.

Notre Canada renversera la décision de ce gouvernement qui a renoncé à demander la clémence pour des Canadiens condamnés à mort à l’étranger. Si nous n’imposons pas la peine capitale chez nous, pourquoi devrions-nous accepter que pareille sentence pèse sur des Canadiens à l’étranger?

Our Canada will assert our sovereignty over the Arctic, not only by bolstering our air and naval presence, but also by investing in Northerners—their communities, their economic development, their health and education.

We must re-engage with the Arctic Council and foster closer ties with all of the Arctic peoples. Military defense of sovereignty is not enough. We must partner with our Arctic neighbours to guarantee progress for our Arctic peoples, a concerted response to climate change and orderly development of northern resources.

Our Canada will take our place as a Pacific power. We will engage with China and India, where Stephen Harper has turned a cold shoulder. We will harness the strength of our own diversity to strengthen our ties. And a Liberal government will bring back the Team Canada Trade Missions—which were so successful under Prime Ministers Chrétien and Martin.

Our Canada will make ending poverty a top priority, which means returning our focus to Africa, which the Conservatives have deserted.

Notre Canada, nous le voyons comme un représentant de la bonne gouvernance dans le monde, capable de montrer le chemin de la paix, capable d’enseigner le fédéralisme et la bonne entente entre les nations, capable de proposer des codes de conduite et de superviser des élections libres. À ces fins, nous établirons un Secrétariat de la paix, de l’ordre et de la bonne gouvernance.

The responsibility to protect was, in part, a Canadian idea—and central to that vision is prevention. With our record in peace, order and good government, Canada can resume its leadership in conflict prevention.

These are only some of the things we will do to return Canada’s voice in the world.

It isn’t Canadians who are the problem. Canadians are out there. The problem is this government.

Le gouvernement conservateur a perdu la foi. Il ne croit plus à l’action internationale.

Mais les Canadiens, eux, sont présents dans le monde. Ils voyagent et étudient à l’étranger en nombre record. Ils s’inscrivent dans des programmes internationaux ici et à l’étranger comme jamais. Ils sont nombreux à fonder ou à militer dans des organisations non gouvernementales. Ce monde, c’est celui des Canadiens, mais ce n’est pas celui de leur gouvernement.

Our lobstermen in Prince Edward Island want to sell their catch in Macau. Our forestry workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs want us to be conquering new markets in Asia. They are quicker and smarter than their government.

It is time that government caught up with them. It is time for the world to be at the centre of our national conversation, not the margins. It is time that we embraced a view of the world worthy of the country we love, the country I remember from my father’s time, the country we can yet be again.

We can do better – and we will.

2. September 12, 2009: The race in Saanich-Gulf Islands just got a lot more interesting

2. Briony Penn:

“I am very proud to nominate Renee Hetherington to be our candidate in the next federal election. I encouraged Renee to seek this nomination because I know she has what it takes to defeat Gary Lunn – WIN this riding – and help put an end to the shame of the Stephen Harper government.

As your candidate in the last election, I had to increase the Liberal vote by 6,000 votes – and I did. I had to gain the Green and NDP vote –- and I did. What happened? The Conservative vote went up! We learned a tough lesson last October. This isn’t the “green riding” some people think it is. It’s a tough nut to crack!

What can we do? We can – we must – learn from the last election and choose the candidate who will hold the voters who supported me last time AND reach out to the moderate voters who left us. That candidate is Renee Hetherington.

In fact … if you sat down at a drawing board to come up with the ideal Liberal candidate for this riding at this point in time, you’d start with someone with a strong grasp of the economic challenges facing Canada and a really impressive business background. How about somebody with an MBA who’s run a number of successful companies, and now consults to the resource sector? That’s a good beginning.

You’d be smart to decide your candidate would be a woman – and you might dream up a woman who had the savvy and the strength to be a cattle rancher – a woman who was ELECTED by the cattlemen in BC to be their executive director. [Aside to audience: Sounds improbable, doesn’t it?]

But of course you’d want your candidate to have impressive environmental credentials, too. So you’d make her a climate scientist – a PhD – who’s written numerous papers for peer-reviewed scientific journals and even has a book being published by Cambridge University Press — and the book would be on climate change. Okay – you’re dreaming in Technicolor now, right? So go ahead and make her an absolutely unbelievably well qualified candidate.

Say she’s a business person, and a cattle rancher, and a consultant to the resource sector and a climate scientist – and now give her family roots that go back three generations in this riding, on Salt Spring Island. Okay – you’ve done it. You’ve created an absolutely amazing Liberal candidate – and she’s standing right here.

I am proud to nominate Renee Hetherington as OUR next Liberal candidate in Saanich Gulf Islands.”

Harper:

“I think that everybody involved would want to see us co-operate in the House of Commons and get some results for people — especially those that are struggling right now: the unemployed and people being left behind,” Mr. Layton said as he inched away from reporters at an archway opening in Toronto.

“So that’s going to remain our preoccupation.”

The New Democrats hold 36 seats in the 308-seat House, more than enough to keep Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government alive through the autumn if they can find common cause on an issue such as Employment Insurance reform. The Tories are likely to unveil EI proposals this week.

“That’s all I have to say about elections,” added the NDP leader.

Harper on minority co-operation:

“What the government has to do if it wants to govern for any length of time, is it must appeal primarily to the third parties in the House of Commons to get them to support it,” Mr. Harper said in a CBC interview in 2005.

Michael Ignateff:

“Let me be very clear, the Liberal party would not agree to a coalition. In January we did not support a coalition and we do not support a coalition today or tomorrow.”

“There are many models [of minority governments]. We have minority parliaments and minority governments in the past that were among the most productive in the history of our country. Mr. Trudeau’s government. Mr. Pearson’s government… They were not coalition governments. They worked wonderfully well. They produced great results for Canadians.”

“As compared to Mr. Harper, I can work very well with people who have opinions that differ from mine.”

Ignatieff said he would present voters “with a very clear alternative” to the Conservatives, a “moderate government of the centre.”

“I have a certain credibility on the coalition issue. I could be standing here as the prime minister of Canada, I turned it down, we turned it down in January. I don’t think I need to give further proof of my feeling that that’s not what Canadians want. I agree with Canadians.”

2) Two-year $101B deficit ‘worse than expected:’ Flaherty. Government can’t say when it will balance books again

2. Jim Flaherty:

The Conservatives admitted today that the federal government deficit would be worse — a total of $101 billion this year and next — than expected and that the government cannot say when it will balance the books again.

In a hastily-released fiscal update, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the severe economic recession means that, between now and 2014-15, Ottawa’s budget shortfall will total more than $160 billion, the government said.

“But restraining the growth in government spending will still mean tough choices for the government,” Flaherty said. “It will require decisions of government that won’t always be popular or pain-free.”

Payments to seniors, students and transfers to the provinces for health services will not be cut, federal government officials said.

Explaining the further deterioration in federal finances, the government said in the update papers that “the sharp drop-off in global activity and incomes has reduced revenues and pushed up government deficits world-wide” and Canada has suffered a similar impact.

Flaherty said the economy is improving but the recovery is fragile. He predicted economic growth of minus 2.3 per cent this year, much worse than the minus 0.8 per cent forecast in the January budget.

But the economy will bounce back and expand by 2.3 per cent next year., he said

Unemployment will continue to rise and hit 9 per cent next year, up from the 7.7 per cent predicted in the January budget, the government said.

In the budget, Flaherty had predicted that the government would begin running budget surpluses again in 2013-14 but he now says there will be an $11.2 billion deficit that year, followed by another deficit of $5.2 billion the following year.

He said the deficit this year will hit $55.9 billion, up from the $33.7 billion shortfall predicted in January. And next year’s deficit will hit $45.3 billion, up from the January prediction of $30 billion.

During last year’s election campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada would not suffer an economic recession and the federal government would not run a budget deficit. With another election looming, Flaherty has expressed a determination to talk about how the Conservatives would extricate themselves from the deficits they are now facing.

Flaherty said in his speech the uncertain economic times mean the Liberal Opposition’s sabre rattling over an election is bad timing for the country.

“Now is not the time to put economic recovery at risk with political opportunism. This is not the time to create instability out of narrow, partisan self-interest,” he said.

“This is not the time to play political games.”

Flaherty said Ignatieff “ought to look at the numbers.”

“Where does the $55 billion (deficit) come from? Certainly he knows the investment we made in General Motors. Is he against that?”

“Certainly he knows the investment we made in Chrysler to save jobs in Canada. Is he against that?”

2. Michael Ignatieff:

Opposition Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Flaherty’s budget numbers keep getting worse.

“Mr. Flaherty has a credibility problem. The government has a credibility problem,” said Ignatieff.

Flaherty originally said the Canadian economy would not slip into recession and the budget would remain balanced, he said. “And now he’s saying we’ll get back to balance in 2015. If pigs can fly.”

Others:

In order to achieve his targets, Flaherty would need to keep spending growth at about three per cent per year for the outgoing four years of his projection and that’s not enough to cover expected inflation and population growth.

“It’s implying a lot of restraint,“ said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist with the Royal Bank. “That was an issue with the budget in January, and it is still a problem.“ “

In a recent assessment, Toronto-economist Dale Orr said the government would need until 2017-18 to grow out of deficit with reasonable spending restraint, adding to achieve the target further, Ottawa would likely need to raise taxes.

Gilles Duceppe:

“In 2004, Mr. Harper met me and (NDP Leader) Jack Layton at the Delta Hotel in Montreal to discuss a number of things… It was Mr. Harper who did this with those he called the `evil socialists’ and the `evil separatists.’ Today he’s blaming others of supposedly doing this, which isn’t the case.”

“He came to my office (as opposition leader) saying, `If I become prime minister, what would you like to see in my program to ensure that you’ll support me and that I have a majority?”’ Duceppe said. “This is intolerable in politics. He wants an election at any price, just like Mr. Ignatieff wants and election at any price.”

Michael Ignatieff:

“This in-camera speech by Mr. Harper has settled once and for all his character as a Conservative leader but also has revealed the true values — the spiteful attitude towards institutions, spite towards Canadians who are helping other Canadians, spite for our institutions.”

“There have always been two Harpers — the real Harper always comes out when he thinks he can’t be heard,

“He treats every adversary as a public enemy who has to be destroyed, so you wonder why it’s difficult for me to continue to support him?”

On re-forming a coalition:

“I think I made it very clear by my behaviour last January in relation to coalition politics. I didn’t think it was in the national interest. I could be standing here as prime minister of Canada, but I turned it down.”

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney:

“Michael Ignatieff dodged the question because he will, in fact, form a coalition if he gets the opportunity.”

Link to the Harper video: Harper invokes need for majority government

Diane Finley, Mike Savage:

…Finley says it would be “irresponsible” to ease employment insurance rules to help tens of thousands of laid-off workers who cannot qualify for EI payments.

“It would be exceptionally expensive, and it would be irresponsible because we had – going into this recession, unlike previous recessions – a shortage of skills and labour. Our focus is on helping people get back to work,” she said.

Liberal human resources critic Mike Savage (Dartmouth-Cole Harbour) says the underlying Conservative message is that the government believes more lenient EI eligibility would encourage Canadians to collect handouts rather than hunt for employment.

Asked about that, Finley said, easing EI qualifications “would not help people get back to work.”

Briony Penn, former Liberal candidate in the riding:

“I think all of us want to see Elizabeth in (the House of Commons), but this riding is exceedingly difficult,” Penn said from Salt Spring Island, B.C., yesterday. “I know the numbers really well. I know every neighbourhood. I know every swing voter. I’ve identified the vote and I know it would take an extraordinary miracle for Elizabeth to win.” 

 On Renée Herrington,  possible Liberal Candidate for the riding:

“The way the system is set up, these two women are going to be pitted against one another cancelling all the good stuff out and Gary Lunn will run laughing all the way to Ottawa.”

Ralph Benmergui, GPC senior advisor:

…said May is running in Saanich-Gulf Islands because the numbers worked in her favour and after spending a lot of time there this summer she can see herself living in the community.

“It is not going to be a cakewalk. It’s going to be very difficult, like any riding is for the Green party person, because we’re the new guy,” Benmergui said yesterday. “If Briony has a better suggestion then I would love to hear it because that argument can be made for any riding in the country… We get our votes from others parties because we did not exist in a lot of people’s minds before.”

Stephen Harper:

“Let me be clear about this, we need to win a majority in the next election campaign,” Harper said. “I am not just saying that because we need to win a few more seats.”

He said that if the Conservatives don’t succeed in getting a majority he predicted the Liberals will govern in a coalition with the NDP and the Bloc Québécois .

“If they get together and force us to the polls, we have to teach them a lesson and get back there with a majority, and make sure their little coalition never happens.”

Link to the entire video: http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/features/harper-sault-090909.wmv:

“Do not be fooled for a moment. If we do not get a majority, the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois will combine and they will form a government. They will deny this until they’re blue in the face in an election campaign, but I guarantee you, if we do not win a majority, this government will have a Liberal Government, propped up by the socialists and the separatists. That government may not last very long, but every day it is in office it will do long term, real damage to this country. This country cannot afford a government like that. If they force us to the polls – if they get together and force us to the polls – we have to teach them a lesson and get back there with a majority and make sure their little coalition never happens.”

Gilles Duceppe:

“Mr. Ignatieff doesn’t seem to look like he’s going to back down, and Mr. Harper is not the kind of man who makes compromises or who achieves consensus … so I think the chances of an election are great — more than great.”