Counter-point: Canada more than capable of handling its own diplomatic affairs
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By Ryan Bromsgrove
Photos by Adam Ovenell-Carter
EDMONTON (Gateway) — “Hey you guys, remember when we had that empire? Wasn’t that smashing?” Thank you, United Kingdom, for reminding us of that with the announcement of Canada and the U.K. sharing embassies. This decision — along with the future potential of roping in Australia and New Zealand — sends the wrong message to both Commonwealth nations and the rest of the world about what Canada stands for.
“We are two nations, but under one Queen and united by one set of values,” said UK Foreign Secretary William Hague in a statement, quoting British prime minister David Cameron speaking to the Canadian Parliament earlier this year.
It’s one thing to allow inertia to justify the continued symbolic reign of an octogenarian woman through the accident of birth. It’s quite another to use that walking rubber stamp to justify the overseas conflation of two supposedly separate countries. Take it from someone who’s spent years living in both these nations: we are not united by one set of values. The idea that we are is nothing more than the same political PR that any diplomat spouts about two more-or-less allied nations.
Hague went on: “We have stood shoulder to shoulder from the great wars of the last century to fighting terrorists in Afghanistan and supporting Arab Spring Nations like Libya and Syria.”
Yeah, Mr. Hague, you’re forgetting something there. Living in the U.K. in 2003, I recall the scattered Iraq war protests and the government not only giving zero fucks about what the people thought, but the shoddy — and since proven false — evidence it gave to make the case for war.
In a commendable show of sanity, Canada decided not to break international law and embark on a near-decade-long money-sink of an excuse to kill foreigners. When the U.K. was hungry for killing, Canada said, “No.”
This may be only a single example, but it’s a significant one, enough to show that these two nations do not necessarily share the same values. Canada’s are better, and we don’t need to be further tied to a former colonial owner attempting desperately to pretend its post-imperial period is not one of decline.
Of course, none of that need matter when there are also financial reasons to bunk up. “In this economy,” you can justify any dumb shit idea you want.
It’s time we stopped putting up with bad ideas for the sake of “the economy.” It’s pretty clear at this point that the economy does what it wants. The cost of maintaining our own embassies is minimal compared to some of the other things we blow our money on.
Formally sharing embassies may not result in many obvious meaningful changes when it comes to actually doing the work. But what it would change is Canada’s reputation. What the U.K. does will reflect more strongly on how Canada is perceived. And for a country perpetually figuring out its own identity, wars, the Queen, and saving a few dollars are not worth the cost of further muddying our international image. Canada is more than capable of handling its own affairs. For that reason alone, it should be ever-severing ties with its parent. Not building new ones.
