Justin Trudeau’s Canada lacks “seriousness” on the international scene and populist protectionism prepared with Poilievre sauce “has no political future”, declared former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in an interview with The duty.
Canada’s luster in the world appears dull in the eyes of the 83-year-old. “However, we have an important role to play,” repeats the former statesman. With 38 million citizens, we have a gross national product far superior to that of Russia, which has 144 million people! »
On his election night in 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau triumphantly proclaimed to the world that “Canada is back”. Seven years later almost to the day, the memory of this sentence arouses joyless laughter in the former Progressive Conservative leader. “ Canada is backas he said… It’s good”, underlines with irony the 18e Canadian Prime Minister, visibly unimpressed by the international pretensions of the 23e.
The former prime minister made a plea for a “dignified” Canada on the world stage, at the launch of an ambitious fundraising campaign launched by Laval University, his alma mater. The Quebec establishment wishes to raise $80 million to fund the construction of an international hub named in honor of its illustrious graduate. This pavilion is to serve as a setting for Laval University’s School of International Studies, in addition to becoming a training ground for the next generation of Canadian diplomats.
“Why could a Quebecer not become President of the Security Council? Or UN Secretary General? asks the former prime minister. It has happened before: during my mandates, Yves Fortier, a guy from Quebec, was President of the Security Council during the first war in Kuwait, at a time when the world was going through a very tumultuous period. »
Those days are over, however, according to Mr. Mulroney. And it will continue to be so as long as Canada does not engage more in the world.
Ottawa is playing deadbeat with its main allies, deplores the former prime minister. “The last time Canada spent 2% of its GDP on defence, as required by NATO, was under my administration, 30 years ago. Since then, it has been steadily declining, and other countries are wondering if Canada is serious. »
Behind the diplomatic scenes
Under his rule, Canada played at the forefront of the world, Mr. Mulroney believes. The country contributed to relieving the famine in Ethiopia, participated in the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, ensured the establishment of treaties capable of affirming the Canadian presence on the world stage. , such as the one on acid rain, on free trade in North America and on Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.
“We also played an important role in the reunification of Germany,” he says. Canada was then, alongside the USSR and the United States, in the eyes of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, on the short list of countries to which the reunited Germans owed eternal gratitude.
“I tried to behave in such a way that Canada and Quebec would be recognized as interesting, useful—and admired—partners internationally,” said the former Prime Minister. The Canada of today, he laments, no longer even invests in the blue helmets, which it nevertheless helped to create. »
“While I was prime minister, there were 16 international peace missions, and Canada is the only state that participated in all of them,” he recalls. We have deployed up to 80,000 soldiers in these initiatives, or 10% of the total number of peacekeepers. When I resigned in 1993, there were 3,700 Canadian troops assigned to the United Nations. Today there are 35.
The protectionist danger
Canada’s retreat on the international scene reflects the coming decline of its power. In a report published in 2017, the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers measured the extent of the Canadian downgrade that is emerging by 2050. Six years ago, Canada’s GDP placed the country in 17e world rank of the planet’s economic forces. By mid-century, according to the report, it will slide in 22e place, behind countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt or the Philippines.
“If you want to assert yourself at the international level, you have to be ready to spend money, but also to commit yourself internationally”, emphasizes Brian Mulroney.
The former Conservative leader does not hold in high esteem the speech of the new. Pierre Poilievre’s protectionism, very little for him. “There is no future in this. Protectionism has had its day, but in the long run, it does not make a great prime minister, concludes the former prime minister. Nor a great country. »