Canada loses UN Security council seat to Portugal

[TithonusSyndrome]

Toronto Sun

OTTAWA — In a stunning swipe at Canada’s foreign policy shift under the Conservative government, United Nations voters Tuesday rejected Canada’s bid for a seat on the prestigious Security Council.

Within minutes of the historic loss, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon was blaming Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who last week questioned whether Canada deserves a seat on the 10-member council.

"I can say that Michael Ignatieff’s statements hurt us,” Cannon told reporters in New York.

Ignatieff had criticized Canada’s foreign policy record, particularly when it comes to climate change and foreign aid priorities.

Ignatieff and other opposition parties are expected to respond to the UN loss later Tuesday afternoon.

Cannon said international diplomats noted that lack of unity in the Canadian bid when it came time to vote.

Canada was up against Portugal and Germany for two seats the council reserves for "Western European and Other States.”

To win a seat, a country must get two-thirds of the votes cast.

In the first ballot, Germany won outright. Portugal finished second but five votes shy of the super-majority while Canada was third, 14 votes short of the required majority.

On the second ballot, both Canada and Portugal still failed to receive the two-thirds majority but Canada lost a third of the support it had on the first ballot and, once again, finished behind Portugal.

Before a third round of voting could take place, Canada withdrew. Portugal went on to claim the prized seat.

Cannon rejected the suggestion that the failure to win a seat is connected to his government's foreign policy, particularly its stance towards Middle East politics. Since taking office in 2006, the Conservatives have been strong supporters of Israel, at times even describing Canada as Israel’s ally.

Former and current diplomats believe that shift towards Israel cost Canada support with Arab and Muslim countries, which together control more than a third of the votes at the UN.

"I do not think that this is a repudiation of Canada’s foreign policy. Canada ran a campaign based on principle,” said Cannon.

As recently as two weeks ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper pitched Canada's candidacy for the Security Council to the 192 member countries at the UN.

But despite depositing bottles of maple syrup on the desks of voters Tuesday and bringing in some uniformed Mounties as part of a last-minute pitch for support, UN voters soundly rejected Canada's bid for a seat.

In six tries — about once every decade since the creation of the UN — Canada had never lost an election to the Security Council.

Harper has proven the same knack for brushing aside concerns presented in protests as Bush did, but getting burned by the UN is hopefully above his ability to whitewash and Canadians can count on some chinks to show in his armor.

[aerius]

Harper has proven the same knack for brushing aside concerns presented in protests as Bush did, but getting burned by the UN is hopefully above his ability to whitewash and Canadians can count on some chinks to show in his armor.

You seriously underestimate Harper, the guy is made of fucking teflon. That's leaving aside the fact that not many people actually give a shit about Canada having a UN security council seat. This might be news for a couple days, but by election time it'll be completely forgotten and I'll be shocked if anyone remembers to bring it up and uses it to hammer him then.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Harper has proven the same knack for brushing aside concerns presented in protests as Bush did, but getting burned by the UN is hopefully above his ability to whitewash and Canadians can count on some chinks to show in his armor.

You seriously underestimate Harper, the guy is made of fucking teflon. That's leaving aside the fact that not many people actually give a shit about Canada having a UN security council seat. This might be news for a couple days, but by election time it'll be completely forgotten and I'll be shocked if anyone remembers to bring it up and uses it to hammer him then.

I doubt Canadian voters care that much unless the anti-Harper movement really pushes on this and disallows anyone to forget it, but inside Parliament, it ought to be memorable. If that turns into political momentum against him, which is obviously wishful thinking, then it's in their court to do something with it.

[Uraniun235]

You seriously underestimate Harper, the guy is made of fucking teflon.

Stephen Harper - the Canadian Reagan?

What makes him so appealing to the Canadian electorate?

[Imperial Overlord]

You seriously underestimate Harper, the guy is made of fucking teflon.

Stephen Harper - the Canadian Reagan?

What makes him so appealing to the Canadian electorate?

He's a skillful political manipulator who rules his party with an iron fist and keeps the idiots in the ranks from speaking. Despite his skills, the lackluster opposition, a much larger war chest than his opponents, and iron control he can't manage more than a minority government.

[TithonusSyndrome]

There are some similarities to Reagan - his policies concerning taxes and cutting social spending have that same undercurrent of letting people feel good about the good times while they last, and this appeals to a lot of blue collar types who enjoy having a direct short-term path to more money. Unfortunately for him, the Canadian electorate doesn't by nature appear to be as overwhelmingly supportive of such a measure, and so he has to content himself with his minority and his limitless skill for dismantling anything appearing a coherent opposition to his party.

[Fiji_Fury]

What enrages me is the blithe disregard of responsibility for the policy desicions and actions that his government has taken since 2006. More even than this, the cheap attempt to frame an opposition leader as the reaons why Canada didn't earn a seat... my mind recoils in horror at the implication the Conservatives don't respect democratic dissent... then regains sanity upon realizing that they never did.

[SCRawl]

With the BQ around, it's questionable whether or not anyone will be able to manage a majority again, now that the Conservatives are united again. They steal away 50 or so seats every time, leaving only 258 of which a party must win 155 in order to attain majority status. If it were up to me, I would get rid of the BQ (or any regional federal party) using campaign financing rules.

[Enigma]

You seriously underestimate Harper, the guy is made of fucking teflon.

Stephen Harper - the Canadian Reagan?

What makes him so appealing to the Canadian electorate?

He's a skillful political manipulator who rules his party with an iron fist and keeps the idiots in the ranks from speaking. Despite his skills, the lackluster opposition, a much larger war chest than his opponents, and iron control he can't manage more than a minority government.

Funny, those exact words could be said of Jean Chretien. In fact he was also known as "Teflon Jean".

The only difference between the two is that JC held consecutive majorities whereas Harper has only managed minorities.

[TithonusSyndrome]

The only difference between the two is that JC held consecutive majorities whereas Harper has only managed minorities.

I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that jaerius may object, but right now the prevailing retroactive wisdom is that Chretien/Martin's finance reforms are a big part of the reason why Canada has done so well the past few years. If true and the tories are being totally contrary to those policies, then it would hold with how Finance Minister Flaherty has basically signaled the end of Canadian economic immunity.

[Solauren]

And that sad fact is, most PC seats are only won with 30 - 40% of the votes. The rest of the votes are divided up amongst the Liberals, NDP, and '3rd party' candidates. The PC's can't even get a majority at the voter level.

[J]

I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that jaerius may object, but right now the prevailing retroactive wisdom is that Chretien/Martin's finance reforms are a big part of the reason why Canada has done so well the past few years.

Why would I object? Without the Cretien-Martin reforms Canada would be bankrupt right now and spoken of in the same sentence as Iceland or Greece.

If true and the tories are being totally contrary to those policies, then it would hold with how Finance Minister Flaherty has basically signaled the end of Canadian economic immunity.

And they are, first they practiced Reaganomics by lowering the GST, then they conducted a $75 billion back door bank bailout using the CMHC to buy up mortgage backed securities from the banks. The banks then went on an MBS spree and have bundled and packaged together a futher $110 billion or so of potentially worthless dog poop which they've presumably offloaded onto the CMHC, which means when they blow up, we the taxpayers get stuck with the bill just like our friends south of the border.


Back on topic, sort of, I wonder if Portugal will sell its security council seat when it goes bankrupt?

[Phantasee]

Who loses to Portugal?

One thing I've been wondering about for a while now is whether or not his party will get rid of him for not getting a majority yet. Are they really satisfied with these consecutive minorities? I don't keep in touch with any of the federal Tories I know on account of most of them being fucking nuts.

[Solauren]

Current Conservative party thinking seems to be

"We will take a minority, as it gives us the microphone, and prevents the NDP/Liberals from doing anything they want to do"

[aerius]

One thing I've been wondering about for a while now is whether or not his party will get rid of him for not getting a majority yet. Are they really satisfied with these consecutive minorities? I don't keep in touch with any of the federal Tories I know on account of most of them being fucking nuts.

I doubt they'll get rid of him. Put it this way, despite being a minority they've effectively functioned as a majority government and rammed through pretty much everything they wanted. And when shit goes wrong they can just blame the opposition, it's a can't lose setup for the conservatives.

[General Trelane (Retired)]

One thing I've been wondering about for a while now is whether or not his party will get rid of him for not getting a majority yet. Are they really satisfied with these consecutive minorities? I don't keep in touch with any of the federal Tories I know on account of most of them being fucking nuts.

I doubt they'll get rid of him. Put it this way, despite being a minority they've effectively functioned as a majority government and rammed through pretty much everything they wanted. And when shit goes wrong they can just blame the opposition, it's a can't lose setup for the conservatives.

Exactly. Harper has been daring the opposition parties to bring down his minority government, and so far it's worked because the opposition haven't been able to form a viable coalition and they're worried that voters would punish them if there's an early election. In the meantime, Harper's been able to do just about whatever he wants (except for that little fiasco where he tried to curtail public funding of political parties, which drove the opposition into forming a coalition that ultimately fell apart after Harper desperately prorogued parliament upon realising he had gone too far with his bully tactics).

As for the OP, I am amazed that the Conservatives' tack is to blame the opposition for lack of unity on this. Seriously? If that works, then Harper really will be Teflon Stephen.

[chris0101]

Harper seems like a manipulator. He believes very strongly (by Canadian standards) in his far right ideology. I recall that he managed to eliminate 2 MPs when he set his first budget the first time that he was in power. He can get the bills that he wants to passed.

Yet despite all of this, I think that his personality, his at times, mismanagement is clear to anyone who sees it. Canada is losing prestige worldwide, no longer does it appear that Canada is perceived as a positive force as much as well, an American puppet. Domestically, it seems as if we are losing any edge that we had. We spend so little on technology and infrastructure despite our clear need for it, we do little long term planning, and overall, it feels as if our leadership doesn't care about the future. Harper certainly doesn't deserve blame for everything, but he has made things substantially worse and is unapologetic about it. The results do show.

It makes you wonder about the future of Canada; even if the Liberals did regain power, I doubt there would be substantial improvement in the rhetoric or the general direction that the nation is taking. That said, I would firmly support voting the Conservatives out of power these days.