Thank you.
I think a risk is that young people are not looking to governments. And I quite understand and encourage their interest in NGOs and the things they can do personally. It's much larger than it was in earlier generations. That's why I insist on the point that the decisions that are made in a world of institutions are made by governments. So we have to find some way to marry those.
One of my sad observations about Canada is that if you ever ran a referendum on foreign policy--I don't recommend referenda, but if you did--you would not get strong support for international initiatives. Our stellar record internationally has always been led by leaders. It's been multi-partisan in this country, and there is a strong grassroots interest in these matters, but it is not something that rises from the grassroots. It has to be led.
The third point I'd make is that the old models of how CIDA worked and of how External Affairs worked when I was the minister have been changed. One of the things that is necessary is to engender confidence in our public servants and others, the people who work with those departments, to look creatively at the changes.
What worries me most now, when I talk to people who serve both in our diplomatic and in our development agencies, is how down they are, how unwilling they are to speak with confidence about missions that not very long ago used to fill them with a sense of confidence. That is an institutional problem, which I believe is within the capacity of this committee to help address.
There needs to be, first of all, a recognition that there is a wide world in which individuals can make a difference. But the final differences require shoring up of our institutions. Those institutions have to take a look at themselves in modern and contemporary terms. Some of the best architects of change will be people who had been working in those institutions but who are now ground down by the sense that their contribution is not respected. They and others, I think, could make a substantial contribution to change.
The other thing is that, whether we deserve it or not, our reputation is still very high in the world. It won't stay that way forever, but it is still very high in the world, including, I believe, with the new Obama administration. There is a recognition that there are things we can do in the hemisphere and in the world that the United States can't do. I don't want to comment on recent performances. I simply want to make the case that this reputation remains strong and is an asset in Canada's hands.