Image by: London Summit (Flickr)
The European economy needs to change. That goes without saying. Despite how clear this is, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper found himself lecturing Euro-Zone economic officials last week at the G20 Summit in Mexico. It is true that Canada is currently in better economic standing than much of Europe, but in his attempts to point this fact out to other world leaders, Harper had little to gain. In fact, unsurprisingly, European officials were not amused to hear him go to such lengths to point out their faults and his previous successes, while he contributed no significant new ideas or solutions for the problems facing the world economy.
Had Harper been offering genuine advice, rather than simply pointing out the obvious, perhaps his talk would have been more positively received. This is something that Canada has done particularly well in in the past. We’ve generally been well received by the international community, and we’ve gotten to this point by contributing to its stability, not by suggesting that we’re better than everyone else. However, this trend seems to be changing for Canada as we take a somewhat different approach to international relations. This trend has found us losing out on the opportunity of an elected seat on the UN Security Council, which not only prevents us from increasing our international influence, but serves as an indicator that we should be more hesitant before making such drastic changes to our foreign policy.
If Canada were looking to reverse this trend, the most effective thing to do would be to not suggest that we are superior to other states whenever we’re given the floor at an international event. Instead, we could either contribute to current plans directed at solving the economic crises, or discuss alternative ways of easing the related pains. It is important to note that Canada has already financially contributed to the current plans, something more useful to point out than what Harper found himself talking about last week. Although there would still be countries in the Euro Zone looking for Canada to contribute more, they might be more inclined to accept what Canada has already done when we say that it is all we can contribute right now, as opposed to stating that it’s simply not our problem.
Even if Canada had done these things, and had contributed to finding a solution to the economic crises, there’d still be one more thing that would have been somewhat problematic. The fact remains that suggestions on how or how not to manage the economy are best suited for discussions between world leaders. A press conference is not the place to bring up the fact that you think the rest of the world should be doing things a bit more like we are here in Canada. These are matters that must be discussed between multiple states, not simply announced. Presenting your ideas like this won’t make other countries more receptive to them, particularly when you’re a world leader at a major international event. If anything, this will just make countries less receptive to ideas that may or may not actually help the situation.
The point of the G20 Summit is for the nations of the world to come together and attempt to solve some of the major problems facing the world. Not all countries will be able to contribute, but it’s a lot harder to foster an international community when world leaders do nothing more than denounce.
