INDEPTH: PAUL MARTIN
The committed multilateralist: Boosting Canada's international presence
CBC News Online | September 22, 2004
Prime Minister Paul Martin has repeatedly vowed to make Canada a stronger player on the international stage, by boosting its military and peacekeeping operations, leading efforts to stimulate developing economies and increasing foreign aid.
All of these ambitions surfaced as Martin gave his inaugural speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2004, urging reforms that would speed the world body's ability to respond to humanitarian crises.
Martin condemned delays in helping Sudan, where two years of fighting between insurgents and government-backed militias has killed at least 50,000 and forced about 1.2 million people to flee their villages.
"The Security Council has been bogged down in debating the issue," said Martin, who promised $20 million to the African Union peacekeeping force that is trying to end the civil war.
"While the international community struggles with definitions, the people of Darfur struggle with disaster," Martin stormed. "They are hungry, they are homeless, they are sick and many have been driven out of their own country. Tens of thousands have been murdered, raped and assaulted.
"[But] … there is still no explicit provision in international law for intervention on humanitarian grounds."
The prime minister urged the UN to adopt specific rules for such intervention.
Determined to act when UN dithers
It's not the first time that Martin has expressed frustration at the UN bureaucracy, which he feels allows political debate stall action.
He drew international attention in early 2003 when he criticized the world body for failing to act effectively, especially when dealing with weapons of mass destruction or rogue states.
Martin vowed Canada would act independently when lack of agreement at the world body prevents desperately needed interventions, as in Rwanda or Bosnia: "The absence of consensus in the UN should not condemn us to inaction …. In appropriate circumstances, consistent with our values, we should be prepared to use the means necessary to achieve valid international goals when full consensus on the right step in not possible."
Build multilateral ties
At heart, however, Martin is a committed multilateralist who has hitched Canada's wagon to the UN star. In his speech to the general assembly, he urged co-operation to resolve international crises.
"It is always preferable to have multilateral authority for intervention in the affairs of a sovereign state."
Indeed, promises to expand Canada's international presence featured prominently in his campaigns to become Liberal leader and prime minister. He evoked a vision of Canada playing a "very ambitious role in the world" and insisted Ottawa "must be prepared to do more far from home."
After becoming prime minister, Martin picked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for his first visit from a world leader.
Key project: Reform at the UN
One of Martin's top projects on the international front is to help
rejuvenate the world body, which he has repeatedly warned must change to
ensure worldwide economic growth and stability.
During his campaign to lead the Liberal party, Martin said Canada must
help rid the UN of "old thinking" and "out-of-date decision-making
mechanisms."
He continued the message in his speech to the General Assembly: "We
should support reforms that will make the Security Council more
effective and will permit those countries who actively support UN
peacekeeping, development and other activities, to continue to have a
meaningful opportunity to serve."
Many countries want changes to the Security Council, which makes key UN
decisions but gives veto power to the United States, France, China,
Russia and Britain. Some want the body expanded while others urge more
power to be given to the General Assembly.
In January 2004, Martin told the World Economic Forum in Switzerland
that UN structures and voting procedures are still mired in the
geopolitical landscape that emerged from the Second World War.
"If they are not reformed to reflect today's realities and tomorrow's
challenges, they will be increasingly bypassed," he warned then.
Key project: Boost developing economies
The prime minister is also keenly interested in promoting economic development in the Third World, and has called for more money to relieve debts and boost foreign aid budgets.
He promised the UN in March 2004 that Canada would lead the way in developing a brokerage system to stimulate private-sector investment in developing countries and encourage entrepreneurship.
The pledge stemmed from a high-profile committee he co-chaired last year that examined the issue.
Martin has repeatedly urged all countries to pool their efforts to increase global prosperity, which he sees as a necessary precondition to stability.
"The fact is that globalization, if its benefits are limited only to a privileged few, is not going to work," he said in 2003. "It is not fair."
Strengthen the military
The prime minister has also committed to directing more funds toward foreign aid and rebuilding Canada's military, which he says must be done for Canada to be taken seriously.
"The gap between the expectations for our military and our capacity to deliver is simply too great and it is affecting our international credibility," he said while campaigning to lead the federal Liberal party.
For decades after Lester B. Pearson convinced the UN to form its first peacekeeping force in the Suez Canal crisis of 1956, Canada contributed major troops to similar operations.
Yet that role dwindled, especially as Prime Minister Jean Chrétien – and his finance minister, Martin – chopped funding to foreign aid, defence and diplomatic corps in order to reduce the federal deficit.
Since the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, Ottawa has set aside billions in funding for security and the military, pumped up the foreign-aid budget, sent troops to Afghanistan and Haiti, and given Iraq $215 million to rebuild.
Canada currently gives $53 million a year to the regular UN budget, more than all but six countries in the world. On top of that, it expects to send $103 million in 2004 as its share of peacekeeping costs and also donates $3 billion annually for international aid projects.
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