I got an interesting email today. Forwarded a few times, so I cannot vouch for its veracity, but there is a good point. Why did Canada break off from the US, what does she gain, and as the letter asks "What now for Canada?"
"A century of moral capital, accumulated painfully in the Boer War, two World Wars and the Korean War, is now utterly spent. At least the French acted in self-interest -- trying to protect $35-billion in oil and arms contracts with Iraq. What treasure did Canadians get in exchange for renouncing our title as a reliable ally?" Click "Continue..." to read the whole letter.
David Frum pointed out that when the case of Mad Cow was found in Alberta, PM Chretien could have sure used a friend in the White House, to whom he could turn for help.
I don't suggest vindictiveness but we have a right to choose our friends and allies.
What now for Canada?
We know what now for Iraq: Liberation and reconstruction, like Germany and Japan after the Second World War. For the U.S., the U.K. and Australia: Moral vindication and a new and invigorated alliance, informally dubbed the Anglosphere.
For Germany: Economic loss and strategic marginalization, as U.S. Military bases there are gradually relocated to friendlier countries like Poland, Bulgaria or Romania.
For France: Dashed dreams of presiding over a European Union Counterweight to the U.S. By fomenting a parliamentary rebellion against Britain's Tony Blair and publicly belittling Eastern European countries that backed the U.S., Jacques Chirac has fractured the united Europe that he had hoped to lead.
For Iran and North Korea, the two remaining countries in George W. Bush's Axis of Evil: A powerful lesson about the difference between the willpower of this American president and the last one.
For the UN: A collapse in credibility on par with the League of Nations, and for the same reason -- caviling in the face of evil. This affects more than just the talk-shop called the Security Council. It also delegitimizes the UN's pet projects, from the anti-industrial Kyoto Protocol, to the star chambers of the International Criminal Court, to the eugenics programs of the UN Population Fund.
The UN's reputation of high-minded morality has been shattered; Kofi Annan is no longer a politically correct symbol of a futuristic, international harmony. He is now seen for what he is: An unelected, unaccountable diplomat from Ghana who is paid a huge sum to act as a lawyer for the world's dictators and America-haters.
But what now for Canada?
A century of moral capital, accumulated painfully in the Boer War, two World Wars and the Korean War, is now utterly spent. At least the French acted in self-interest -- trying to protect $35-billion in oil and arms contracts with Iraq. What treasure did Canadians get in exchange for renouncing our title as a reliable ally?
We were once influential in the great matters of the day. In 1941, we hosted Churchill and Roosevelt off the coast of Newfoundland; in 1956, we helped broker a resolution to the Suez crisis. We used to punch above our weight in international affairs. How different things are now.
Take last week's war summit in the Azores. If Bush and Blair had been the only leaders there, Canada's absence Could be understandable -- we are not in their military league. But the Spanish and the Portuguese leaders were there, too. That is a club to which we ought to belong. We once did. We no longer do.
We are not even on America's official list of 45 allies, published by The White House last week. Azerbaijan is on the list. So is Mongolia. Palau is, too. Most people didn't even know Palau is a country. Now They know. Because now it matters!
We're not on that list. But don't worry. Our prime minister has been making new friends. You see, the day after Chretien was not invited to the Azores summit, he held his own summit, in Ottawa, with Joaquim Chissano. Who's he? Why, he's the president of Mozambique, a country of 20-million people with just 90,000 phone lines, where the life expectancy is 35 years, and where per capita GDP is $1,300.
He's not on the White House list of allies either.
"Canada looks forward to this opportunity to further our political and commercial relations with Mozambique," gushed Chretien.
That's our league now.