I'm encouraged by what President Obama said in his campaign and what he has said so far, and in the advisers around him, some of whom have been academics and experts on exactly that question, including his ambassador to the United Nations, who is of cabinet rank. I think that reflects his view that the United Nations is the high table of multilateralism. It has huge challenges in exercising that role, but that's only because it reflects the world.
I think it's very important for Canada to seek the Security Council seat. I hope we win. If we do not, I think we should take some time to reflect on what is it and why is it that we haven't been successful, but let's operate on the assumption that we ought to be successful in that campaign.
I would argue that to be successful in that campaign, we have to be global, realist, and internationalist. That is to say, we will beat out Portugal if, in the candidacy, we bring to the table ideas for the United Nations, just as we did last time. We ran it as a campaign, where it wasn't just “vote for Canada because every 10 years we're on the Security Council”. We came with some issues that we wanted to deal with, one of which was blood diamonds in Africa. Bob Fowler, whom we are all remembering, was very active in his tenure.
You must have ideas and you must have the global network of foreign policy engagement to secure the votes and to be listened to. You have to be realist in what the agenda is that you would wish to put forward. I think it will be important for Canada, in its campaign, to be very clear about why we want to be on the Security Council and what issues we want to bring leadership and Security Council focus to in our two-year period, and to make that transparently known and broadly reflective of our foreign policy approach.
You don't get it just for a good past.