Foreign Policy: Look Beyond The U.S.

Our access to Washington adds real clout to the standing we earn by our actions in other countries. When Canada's relations with Washington are strong, other countries come to us, or listen to us, not just because of our own merits, but because we can influence the superpower. By the same token, our reputation in the developing world, and in the multilateral community -- to name only two critical forums -- have been assets that the United States cannot always command itself. The Progressive Conservative government of 1984-93 worked closely with the United States, and achieved major breakthroughs, notably on free trade and the environment. At the same time, we disagreed sharply on other contentious issues -- Cuba, Nicaragua, the way to fight apartheid, the authority of the World Court, the Palestinian right to self-determination, and the Strategic Defence Initiative, the so-called "Star Wars" in which president Ronald Reagan believed so avidly, to which prime minister Brian Mulroney said, "No, thank you." Our reason for being active in the wider world was the objective importance of what Canada was doing in Africa, in Central America, in multilateral agencies, in Official Development Assistance. But a consequence was that we had cards to play in Washington. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060508.wxcoclark08/BNStory/specialComment/home [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on May 9, 2006]

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