Mutually Assured Sustainability: A Progressive Foreign Policy

The following is the transcript of a speech by Eric Walton, Green Party of Canada candidate for Kingston and the Islands and GPC Foreign Affairs Critic, delivered March 29^th, 2005 at the GPC nomination meeting for Cornwall.

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Good evening, Thank-you for the invitation to speak on a subject I have a great personal interest in: Canadian Foreign Policy.

My parents were in the Canadian Foreign service, (though only one was paid a salary!) so it is fair to say that I have been immersed in the subject since childhood and it is probably why I was drawn to the study of International Politics at Queen’s University.

I would like to begin tonight by looking at two pivotal foreign policy events. The decision by our government to NOT join the US-led invasion of Iraq, and then more recently, to NOT sign on to the US Ballistic Missile Defence initiative or BMD.

The reason the Canadian government gave for not joining the U.S. invasion of Iraq was that this action was not approved by the UN and therefore in violation of International Law. While this was certainly an excellent reason, I believe it was in fact a diplomatic smokescreen for a more familiar domestic consideration.

I would argue that the real reason for the Liberal “No” to an Iraq invasion can be found in Quebec politics. Sure other factors were also important, but it was clearly the public in Quebec that held the trump card. They were the tipping point for the decision on Iraq.

The timing for the final Canadian decision was, by coincidence, during the period of a critical Quebec provincial election, and had a different choice been made it would have played directly and historically into the hands of the PQ and very possibly changed the outcome of that election.

Remember this decision occurred under the watch of a Prime Minister who had spent his entire political life battling the Quebec separatists, and, nearing retirement, he was not going to risk another strategic unity mistake.

In further support for this argument, the Canadian government constructed more politically discreet ways of supporting the US invasion, by using Canadian naval forces at the time on antiterrorist patrol in the Persian Gulf, and by relieving some US troop needs in Afghanistan by reinforcing the UN force with Canadian soldiers.

With regards to the Ballistic Missile Defence decision, Paul Martin and his Cabinet faced polls showing widespread public opposition to BMD, with that opposition especially high in Quebec.

Since Quebec is considered critical by Liberal strategists for regaining majority government status, Prime Minister Paul Martin had to sharply reverse his preferred course of action on BMD.

Of course there was also the little matter of a full scale revolt and direct party policy resolutions against BMD coming from the Quebec Youth Wing of the Federal Liberals.

And yet once again, the Liberals managed to indirectly support BMD by authorizing a change to the NORAD partnership agreement that would allow the use of NORAD facilities for BMD development and application.

In my opinion the Liberal government made the right international policy choices both on Iraq and BMD but for the wrong reasons - that is to say they made them largely for partisan political reasons. I am happy to take these victories as they come but unfortunately this type of decision making strategy focus can cut both ways- the Liberals can and do make bad international and national policy choices by a chronic overemphasis on partisan electoral calculation.


Take The Kyoto Accord for example. Sure, we signed that international document, but our once proud international environmental reputation is increasingly tattered as our CO2 emissions have actually risen instead of fallen. In fact we are currently 20 % above the 1990 baseline and a very long way from the agreed 6% reduction by 2012 - now only 7 years away.

Again, what happened was that the Liberal priority on domestic partisan politics played itself out on the Western front as the Liberals sought to rebuild their support out West. In fact their own Environment Minister and also Heritage Minister essentially confirmed that big oil and gas backed by the Alberta Conservative government has undermined the development of a successful Kyoto plan for Canada. This is a fundamental failure of leadership far more serious than the Sponsorship Scandal, as bas as that is.

I would add that the Canadian Conservative Party is no better in their similar tactical over-reliance on polling results. They supported the US on both the war in Iraq and joining in BMD, but have publicly fudged on both issues rather than taking a principled stand in defense of their real foreign policy.

Now I suspect some of you are thinking - welcome Greens to the world of REALPOLITIK. I certainly acknowledge that this kind of election-focused governance is all too common in Canadian politics. But I would argue that unless we are prepared to develop and express a foreign policy driven more by principles and values, we will fail as a nation to rise to the full challenge of our times.

A poll-driven, narrowly self-interested foreign policy won’t provide the necessary leadership and creativity required to resolve significant international issues. The consequences for Canadians and other world citizens will be very real and very serious. There is a global ecological REALPOLITIK that absolutely requires greater integrity and vision than we see today from most of our elected leadership.

And the crisis conditions at the beginning of this new century are truly daunting:

• Most prominent is the reality of human-caused global climate change as a very real and present danger confirmed by most climate scientists and now evidenced directly in the unfolding of physical events.

• There is the continuing struggle against old and new diseases that brings immense human suffering and grief.

• There is the crisis of a growing global democratic deficit resulting from the expanding power of unaccountable international corporations and trans-national trade agreements.

• There is the irreplaceable loss of many companion species on this beautiful planet as ecosystems are progressively degraded by a one-two combination of industrial-style development and rapid population growth.

• There is the ever widening gap between the poor and the rich, both within nations and between nations, with profoundly negative implications for social harmony, pandemic disease control and global population stabilization.

• Last but not least there is the approaching spectre of an expanding global food shortage as demand increases at the same time as water, oil, stable climate and arable land decrease.

Every era confronts its own unique set of crisis conditions and we certainly have more than enough for our times.

If we are to meet these challenges with any degree of success, we must raise Canadian foreign policy and activity to a much higher level of confidence and performance. Certainly, we cannot do the heavy lifting alone as a nation, but we can be a leader among nations in finding the necessary solutions.

Towards developing the Canadian capacity for very high and continuing performance and innovation in foreign policy and practice, the Green Party proposed in the last federal election a major reform involving DND, CIDA and the Department of Foreign Affairs. We proposed creating a new Agency - to be called International Affairs and Comprehensive Security - that would direct but NOT MERGE these three federal bodies.

The new coordinating Agency would be responsible for broad strategic planning & priority setting as well as budgeting for DND, CIDA and Foreign Affairs.

It would combine key people from the different federal bodies as well as experts from outside government into a new organization with a core mission to innovate international policy and practices that advance 1) environmental sustainability, 2) peace-building and 3) human security initiatives, worldwide.

It would help reduce competition and “silo building” between the internationally oriented arms of our government as well as duplicate institutionally what is already happening in the field in places like Afghanistan where peacekeepers work closely with development experts and diplomats to build peace and stability. It is being called the 3D strategy -Defence, Diplomacy, Development.

In November, in Montreal, Canada will be hosting the next round of international negotiations to decide what comes after the Kyoto Accord ends in 2012.

It is absolutely critical that a future international agreement incorporate a comprehensive and accountable approach that not only significantly reduces global greenhouse gas emissions, but also directly addresses population growth issues, environmentally sustainable economic development and the need for significant additional financial aid to developing countries.

If a comprehensive strategy is not in place to fully manage each one of these critical global issues then success in one area will be negated by failure in any of the others.

Admittedly, this sounds like a very tall order, especially given the difficulty negotiating individual international agreements on these issues. But an integrated deal offers something for everyone and will directly counter the accusation that these international accords are one-sided or ineffective.

It allows for linkage of issues with the ongoing results generating specific costs and benefits to each nation and, therefore, accountability in real time and not decades later.

It also puts into sharp relief the multifaceted nature of the crisis we face as a species and the need for decisive collective action before it is too late.

A model of this kind of comprehensive and integrated approach is being developed now in our Green Platform 2005 project by the subcommittee that I Chair - International Peace and Security. It is titled “Beyond Kyoto: Mutual Assured Sustainability”. It proposes the following terms as a starting point for negotiations:

1) Developed countries commit to a 30% average reduction in fossil fuel consumption per capita by 2020.

2) Developing countries commit to a 50% average reduction in natural population growth rates by 2020 through non-coercive measures.

3) Developed countries commit to double Global Development Assistance (GDA) for antipoverty, seniors' social security and woman's programs in developing countries.

4) All signatories to the agreement commit in kind or in cash to a wide scale emergency species-at-risk/ecosystem protection program.

If Mutual Assured Sustainability becomes approved Green Party of Canada policy we will be proposing that Canada champion this initiative through the G20 group of nations for eventual UN sponsorship and administration. More details on this initiative can be found on the Green Party of Canada website under our platform 2005 project heading and inside the International Peace and Security sub-section.

I would like to finish with a quote from by William Rees taken from his paper titled "Is Humanity Fatally Successful".

Will we on this small blue Earth island descend like the Easter Islanders from civilization's peak into the valley of chaos, of tribal factions driven by sheer survival instinct and warring over the last remaining pockets of viable land and resources; or will reason prevail so that we, all members of the human family together, can plan an equitable way to find "the right balance with our environment.

I believe that the Green Party in its worldwide manifestation is one of the necessary ingredients to this global alternative path of sustainability. The political tipping point is closer for the Green Party in Canada than most realize. The only question now is which will be the first electoral district in Canada to elect a Green MP, and stand out in history as an electorate who looked beyond the short term and met the challenge of their generation as a gift to the next.

Thank-you

Eric Walton

Green Party of Canada candidate for Kingston and the Islands

Shadow Cabinet Critic for Foreign Affairs