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The Three Pillars

Thank you for participating in the Dialogue on Foreign Policy. The interactive web site is now closed. The Minister's report will appear on this web site once it is released.

This Forum is bilingual, and participants post messages in their language of choice.

Canada - U.S. Relationship

Contributor: 1419

Date: 2003-04-30 00:38:02


As many comments have noted, the UN does some good work and the world certainly needs a body like it. But unlike private corporations which renew themselves under competitve pressure or governments which renew themselves under electoral pressure, the UN has no mechanism for renewal and revitalization. Recall the UN was itself a rejuvenation of the League of Nations. Its decline is the just the natural decay of time. The stream of failures of its Security Council to act in a timely fashion over the last decade is the most visible signal that now is the time to dismantle and rebuild a fresh organization. Canada and the world should exploit the non-payment situation to pressure non-paying countries like the US to help rebuild an organization that they would be too embarrassed not to be part of and not to support by paying on time. Tapping our creativity to actually do this would be a dialogue exercise in itself and a suitable follow-on for DFAIT to sponsor when this discussion forum ends tomorrow.
To everyone, thank you for the opportunity to participate. And to the odd US citizen lurking out there, we Canadians don't really want to come across as whining about big brother South of us all the time, but we would rather you regard us as a trustworthy constructive conscience whose advice is hopefully worth listening to.

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Canada - U.S. Relationship

Contributor: fatmomma

Date: 2003-04-30 22:28:14


We do not need to start a new organization again from scratch. The USA at this time is not interested in listening to International voice. This is why the have not been paying for and supporting the UN even though their citizens were strongly in favour of it. We may want to regard the USA as a trustworthy constructive force; Canada serves as a conscience that the present USA government does not care to listen to. I am not whining I am seriously complaining about the present USA administration disregard for the wishes of other countries or even many of their own citizens

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