Is Ottawa Losing Its Global Voice?

That was not the case under former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien, who rightly kept Canada out of the Iraq war. But his successor Paul Martin came to power with an eye to repairing Canada-United States relations that were perceived to have become frayed. And the election of Harper and his Tories is taking Canada further down that road. Now, increased Canada-U.S. co-operation in Afghanistan, the Mideast conflict and other issues are seen in many parts of the world as eroding Ottawa's role as an honest broker in relations between the White House and countries at odds with U.S. policies. Harper cynically rushed Parliament into a vote without proper debate to extend Canada's military presence in Afghanistan for three years, in part to allow the U.S. to leave that strife-torn country and focus on Iraq. There is mounting unease that Canada has embraced Washington's counter-insurgency agenda and has abandoned diplomacy, peacekeeping and rebuilding, once the cornerstones of Canada's foreign policy. Indeed, most Canadians now oppose the Afghan mission. http://tinyurl.com/jhhl3 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on July 28, 2006]

Note: http://tinyurl.com/jhhl3