The Scandal over Canadian Foreign Policy/Defence Scandals

Two things have been embroiling Defence Minister Peter Mackay and Foreign Minister John Baird this week.

The man is too pretty to fly economy.

First, Mackay has been in hot water over his supposed use of private airplanes for travel – up to a total of $3 million dollars worth.

Second, John Baird has been in trouble for demanding special gold business cards which are different from the regular ones used be pretty much everyone else. (I ran into Jim Flarhety a few weeks back and I have his business card. He uses the normal one.) The extra-special cards were $400. (You can read the story in this hilarious Globe and Mail piece.)

There has been a lot of ink spilled over these two stories this week. In total, we’re talking about $3,000,400. Would I like $3,000,400? Yes. I really would. But is this a substantial amount of money in the great scheme of the Canadian budget? No.

In fact, the real scandal here is the fact that these issues are the scandal.

Canadian foreign policy is directionless. There is no grand vision, no idea of our place in the world... other than as a British colonial possession from sometime during the late 19th Century. It is comprised of a series of unfinished trade agreements and reacting to events in the world, only when we really have to. Baird’s sole experiment with boldness at the UN Conference on Disarmament was a total embarrassment and a disaster.

The Department of National Defence is now in a period of transition and contraction. One can only assume that this will mean even less resources for peacekeeping training and activity. But don’t worry – we have stealth skidoos.

There have been other scandals this week – A Canadians detained or prevented from returning home in Sudan and Libya. What did the government know? Who cares! John Baird WANTS GOLD ON HIS BUSINESS CARDS. Stephen Harper is worrying about "Islamicism" - as opposed to the Islamist threat to Canada. Genius - but don't worry, I'm sure no one noticed. (I'm glad he's so familiar with that which comprises the number one threat to Canada. Sleep well kids.)

Earlier this year I posted a list of 12 foreign policy questions that I would have liked the major parties to answer during the election. I do not think I am any closer to answering most of them. Our media is so often attracted by the quick scandal rather than the big picture, and I do wonder if any of these are even being asked? But maybe the public just better understands and is more interested in the scandals over shiny objects.

Using Social Media to Get Around Beijing's Censors - and Ottawa's!

Yes, I did look for the most banal
social media graphic that I could find.

It was with a great deal of satisfaction that I read this story in the Globe and Mail on how the Canadian Embassy in China is using the Chinese-social media service, Weibo, to communicate with ordinary Chinese people.

After years of seeing Canada’s name dragged through the mud – in both the official media and online – over the refuge granted to Chinese fugitive Lai Changxing, the embassy used Weibo on Wednesday to post the entire Federal Court decision that resulted in the 53-year-old’s deportation to China last month after about a decade-long legal battle.

Unsurprisingly, the post disappeared almost as soon as it went up. (Can't have people finding out 'inconvenient' information, now can we, Beijing!) But what really encouraged me was the social networking strategy that the embassy described in the article.

The embassy's Weibo account is also one of the rare places where Canadian diplomats can write or speak (albeit in 140-character bursts, the maximum allowable length on the site) without having their words first edited and cleared in Ottawa. The frequency of the postings, combined with time differences, make it impractical for each item to be routed through headquarters.
“We [diplomats] are under tremendous pressure to innovate and to really understand who our audience is. We’re pretty convinced that reaching out to this group of largely young people who are interested in the world and interested in Canada relates directly to what we’re doing here,” Canada’s ambassador to Beijing, David Mulroney, said in an interview. The 56-year-old career diplomat said the online interaction with ordinary Chinese citizens was now “the single most important tool we have in understanding what this emerging generation in China is all about.”

In other words, aside from trying to get around Beijing's censors, Canadian diplomats are able to get around Ottawa's! (I'm pretty shocked that no one in the CPC has had a heart attack about this yet. "What!? Canadian diplomats thinking and taking the initiative for themselves?! NOOOOO!!!!")

DFAIT is one of the most competitive programs in the Canadian government. Although I personally find DFAIT employees to often act like they're members of some kind of bizarre religious order, they are also smart as hell and have done wonderful things when Ottawa lets them.

I hope this is not just a new way for Canada to connect with the broader world, I also hope it shows that the Harper Conservatives should give their DFAIT staff a little more free reign. This is creative and awesome diplomacy at its best. The kind of thing we were good at not so many years ago.

Confusing "bold" with "leadership" and "listening" with "agreement": It's still amateur hour for the Conservatives

Chief Political Advisor to FM John Baird

What is leadership at the UN? Apparently it’s storming out of things when people we don’t like are there.
Canada has made the decision that it will “boycott” the UN Conference on Disarmament while North Korea is the chair.

Does it make sense that North Korea is the chair? No. Of course it doesn’t. It’s a state that has actively engaged in illegal trade and development of weapon, constantly threatens its neighbours and is a threat to international security.

So Canada has announced that it will boycott the meetings (until the middle of August due to the UN CD’s bizarre rules).

On the surface, this is a noble decision. We believe in the UN as a functional agency that can bring about real change – we will not tolerate that which makes a mockery of our vision of it. After all, who doesn’t cringe when they see Syria or Libya take control of various human rights bodies. It has also garnered a lot of international attention.

But is this leadership?

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Six Months later, Canada develops a policy on the Arab Spring

The Globe and Mail is reporting that Stephen Harper is going to use the G8 summit to define his government’s position on the Arab Spring. Way to go guys! Only 6 months after the fact. Glad to see the Government of Canada taking the most important developments in the structure of international politics since 1989 so epically seriously.

What we still don’t know is whether Harper will actively or tepidly support the Arab Spring.

A couple of quick thoughts.

First, I don’t think Harper has any problems with carving out his own stance on the issue. He was clearly out of step with all of his Western allies (and other Canadian political parties) with his very lukewarm support for the Egyptian protestors – a stance clearly inspired by Harper’s strong support and concern for Israel’s security.

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Cana-dammerung: A belated final post on the Canadian Election

Cry the beloved country.

Cross-posted at Duck of Minerva

Well it’s been just over two weeks since the Canadian Election – and I am much overdue for the long promised third installment of the snoozefest series that I started. In some ways I’m glad I waited to write my reply: first, because I was contemplating throwing myself off of Tower Bridge. In a moment of panic on the morning after the election I formed the Government of Canada in Exile (please join!) but I think I have calmed down now and have a new appreciation for the UK visa renewal process. Second, because I wanted to actually spend some time thinking about the implication of Canada’s first majority government since 2006.

So, what did I think?

Basically nothing. I actively ignored it. I’ve been bogged down with exams, international affairs (that OBL thing) and not quite willing to face up to the fact that Canada just handed this guy a majority mandate.

So, what am I making up off of the top of my head?

Lots!

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2011 Canadian Election Results explained

The best explanation of the Canadian election so far - via Saideman's Semi-Spew

I, for one, am happy to come from Scared White People Land.

Baird as FM Reports: A first overly-emotional reaction (Ohpleasegodno.)

Even with syphilis, this bear may have been a better choice.

I'm due for a post on the election (coming!) but it would seem that the Globe and Mail is reporting that John Baird will be named the new Minister of Foreign Affairs...

If Canada wanted someone to make us more likable to an international community that has not exactly been super impressed with us lately, surely there must have been a syphilis-ridden half dead polar bear available?

For non-Canucks, this is like that time when the George W. Bush administration put John Bolton at the UN. Baird will make up for the lack of offensive facial hair with even less tact and diplomatic skills.

The only good news I can think about right now is that Harper seems to like and trusts Baird So this may actually be good for DFAIT - a symbol that a terribly used/neglected ministry might be getting attention.

At the same time, Harper likes Baird because he's a laser cannon that's been used to shout out dissent and find and crush opposition with the gentle touch of the Iranian security forces. It may mean that Harper wants to do something big, knows there is going to be a lot of dissent (the new "Office of Religious Freedom?!", even tougher stance on Israel/Palestine?) and will need someone to calm the masses... with screaming and hurled abuse.

Dear international community. Please ignore us for the next 2.5 years. There will be nothing you want to see here.

Seeing the Smartphone for the Electorate: The Mace on CPC Strategy

The Mace has an interesting post on why the Conservatives have campaigned rather poorly - despite having more money and resources than any other party. I'll quote at length because it's pretty sharp and very good:

Conservative strategists are utter imbeciles when it comes to opening their war chest to the cheapest and most effective counterbalance to the danger of an ignited 34-44 demographic, the second largest growing social media participant group. That counterbalance is targeted online advertising.

The Conservative advertising strategy throughout the campaign has been a heavy emphasis on massive blanket TV spots. Fine. Television is the heart, the intestine, the lungs of campaign advertising. We have already talked about how their production machine has shifted mid-stride to confront the recent NDP surge. But social media is the new nervous system, the thyroid, and the pancreas. The Conservatives have demonstrated an inability to ascertain and respond to the strength of the NDP momentum, the new manifold on which people make decisions. Their response could have been swiftly accomplished through a noise campaign of massive facebook and YouTube blanket ads for pennies a glass. Their not doing so betrays their internally antiquated groupthink and focus on highly personal and creative attacks rather than a wide ranging public engagement strategy. When even the Chosen One is saying that the revival preacher is failing to connect to Canadians, the Conservatives could at least follow through on their cynicism backed by treasure and sprint back on a road of bones. NDP strategists should be congratulated for using their resources so effectively, especially given the obvious window by their generous counterparts.

By showing that they had no endgame strategy in the event their character assassination of Michael Ignatieff backfired by re-igniting complacent left wing voters, the Conservatives have exposed a conceit all their own. The blind trust they placed in their hatchet men has proven to be their undoing. The closed rallies, the barbs of the lurker scandal, all of this pales to an oversight that will have them kicking themselves in the months to come. With just under $20M probably spent so far in this campaign, an extra half million on an avalanche of impressions,5 second YouTube spots, and Google ads might have been the counterpunch they needed. Every time I see Conservative staffers on TV, they’re always huddled intensely, rattling away on their BlackBerries and their iPhones. It stuns me that so cunning and well resourced an organization cannot see the smart phone for the electorate. In this, the NDP has played the player, not the game.

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The 2011 Canadian Election: Lessons Learned and Mindless Amateur Speculation

Canadian democracy rests in this man's hands.

Cross-posted at Duck of Minerva. Because I like bothering the 95.6% non-Canadians on that site. 

Yesterday I provided a fully superficial background and survey of developments regarding the 2011 Canadian Election. The short version is 1) We’ve had a series of minority governments. 2) Stephen Harper probably thought he could get a majority, and now that does not seem likely though it is still possible. 3) The NDP has ‘surged’, probably at the Liberal’s expense, but also very much at the expense of the Quebec nationalist/separatist Bloc Party and possibly even that of the Tories (who may have expected disappointed Liberals to flock right rather than left.)

In other words – no one has any idea what is going to happen. ThreeHundredandEight has a post on what would happen if the parties achieved their ‘vote ceiling’ ie) how many seats they would get if everyone who says they are going to vote for them actually does. So a majority government for the Tories is still possible (they have a pretty dedicated party followers. One might say rabid, but that is unkind. Just don’t date any...)

So, based on the fact that we are in electoral terra incognita if the polls are right, what can we possibly say we have learned from the election?

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