Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. The provincial role is actually quite important. We've had premiers' visits and they've become quite global. Premier Campbell has made I don't know how many visits to China in the last number of years, and I think that is really an important contribution to sustaining our p

Foreign Affairs committee  Let me start with the first question. Just off the top of my head, in terms of what are the ideas we could build upon, we're coming to the testing point at the Security Council—if we win—of the end of the MDG goals, the millennium development goals. I would think we ought to ha

Foreign Affairs committee  The economic crisis that we are working ourselves through is, in my mind, the first economic crisis of the modern globalized era. You get up in the morning and the first news you hear is what the Nikkei did last night and what's going on in Europe. And they wake up to what has ha

Foreign Affairs committee  On Afghanistan, I think we, along with the other countries engaged in the development work, are learning an awful lot about what works and what doesn't work. That is going to help inform, as we move forward not only in Afghanistan but perhaps in other similar situations of fragil

Foreign Affairs committee  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 ref

Foreign Affairs committee  One of the consequences of globalization is that we have a longer list of issues that need to have the discipline and perspective of professional diplomats engaged in them. Environment is one, and it's not just climate change. Over the years we've had experience in cross-border e

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it's the wrong question. I'll answer it, but it's the wrong question, because it assumes a static pie of power. Let's face it, is Parliament as powerful as it once was, or political parties? One, we are living in a more complex society, in which power is diffused. What's

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, that's a very good question, and one that--

Foreign Affairs committee  Let me say that it is one of the dimensions of our foreign policy that is uniquely legitimate for Canada--not exclusively Canada, but it brings together across that circumpolar region a very interesting set of countries that can deal with environmental, economic, ecological, and

Foreign Affairs committee  I think 9/11 reminded us all that Hobbes is back. The pessimistic nature of humankind perhaps is something we had lost sight of. But I would say let's be a realist with respect to Iran. I think you could argue that some of the statements made in the west have made it easier for

Foreign Affairs committee  I actually think there is a role we can play as long as we don't talk about it. That's one of the real challenges of foreign policy. There is in Parliament and there is in the media and in the broad public a desire to articulate what you are doing. Cuba is a perfect example of wh

Foreign Affairs committee  But the Americans are there.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll give you another example: Iran. The Americans aren't present; we have been. And that is a classic way in which Canada quietly can be another source of view on what's going on.

Foreign Affairs committee  You'll recall that in my opening comments I said that Canadian foreign policy should be realist. I think the Prime Minister's comments with respect to Afghanistan are very realistic. They reflect the literature, they reflect President Obama's comments, and they remind us of what

Foreign Affairs committee  It was set up when I was there. It built on the congressional relations office that was set up when Mr. Gotlieb was our ambassador and the whole notion of engaging Congress more aggressively. But there was an evolution of thinking that said, well, we have provinces that have rel