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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Lament for a consulate
You know it's a slow political day in Ottawa when a minor announcement about Canada and Great Britain sharing some embassy and consular services brings out the phrase mongers and predictions of doom and perdition.
Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair lamented the end of an independent Canadian foreign policy, while other critics said the service-sharing agreement would weaken the Canadian brand in the world and tie Canada to the coattails of a one-time colonial power that is allegedly still hated in some parts of the world.
It's poppycock, of course, but then Stephen Harper's Conservatives can share some of the blame for hyperbole by staging the announcement as a big event, then proclaiming it was, in fact, a small matter.
It remains unclear why British Foreign Secretary William Hague flew to Ottawa for the announcement -- probably because it was a convenient stopover on the way to the United Nations and there was nothing more important on the bilateral agenda -- when it really wasn't worthy of more than a minor news release informing Canadians the Brits and Canucks would share space in a limited number of overseas diplomatic posts.
For starters, it means the British will be offered a small office at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti, where Great Britain is currently not represented, while a few Canadians will join the British legation in Myanmar, where we have no diplomatic or consular services.
It will expand the reach of both countries, without requiring either nation to make a major investment in bricks and mortar. Service-sharing agreements of various types are not new. Canadians work out of Australia's embassy in Cambodia, while Canada provides services to Australians in several countries. Britain already works out of Canada's office in Mali, and Italy has been looking after Canada's interests in Iran after Ottawa closed its embassy earlier this month.
The idea that Canada's foreign policy will somehow be confused with Britain's -- or vice versa -- is ridiculous, but that was the bogeyman raised by Mr. Mulcair and others.
As the brief but sharp debate illustrates once again, it's becoming increasingly difficult to have an ordinary political discussion in this country. No wonder, then, Canadians seem increasingly restless with the cacophony from Ottawa.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 26, 2012 A10
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