A couple of weeks ago when I spoke at the Fraser Institute, someone got up during the Q&A and asked what I thought the Conservatives should and would do on foreign affairs. I responded that they should take a more rigorous stand on contentious issues (I cited UN reform as an example), do a better job fighting for Canadians in peril abroad (Kazemi/Arar/Sampson), and just be more principled in outlook in general (ie. more supportive of democracies around the world.) I also said, in a moment of frankness, that I thought the Harper Tories would not be making foreign affairs a priority, as evidenced by the choice of Peter MacKay as minister, a man who to my knowledge had no previous experience (or even interest) in dealing with international issues.
This disappointment notwithstanding, I think I was wrong -- although it was impossible to know what we now know at that time. The trip to Afghanistan, the visit with Karzai, the media on the release of the hostages, etc... has shown that Harper himself is basically going to be the de facto foreign affairs minister, with MacKay relegated to doing the formalities stuff. Which, I think, is great.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:56 PM
