FOREIGN POLICY REVIEW: NORTH AMERICAN INTEGRATION DEFINES THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE, ONE IN WHICH WE HAVE MUCH TO OFFER

Bob Rae

Whichever party forms a majority or minority government in the coming national election, Canada’s foreign, trade and defence policy will invariably reflect Canada’s interests and values. Those economic interests and security issues are largely defined by Canada’s relationship with the United States. Fifteen years after the Free Trade Agreement, 10 years after NAFTA, economic integration in North America “is now irrevocable,” writes Bob Rae. Fifteen years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the promised peace dividend has proven illusory. Amidst ethnic cleansing and global terror, he writes, “there is also a growing realization that the rule of law and governance matter in the world.” And in the reconstruction of failed states — riven by ethnic, religious and regional division — “the federal idea” may prove to be an idea whose time has come again.

Quel que soit le parti qui formera un gouvernement minoritaire ou majoritaire à l’issue du prochain scrutin fédéral, notre politique en matière de défense, de commerce et d’affaires étrangères traduira les valeurs du Canada. Mais sur ces questions d’économie et de sécurité, nos intérêts sont largement définis par nos rapports avec les États-Unis. Quinze ans après l’Accord de libre-échange et 10 ans après l’ALENA, l’intégration économique de l’Amérique du Nord est ainsi devenue inévitable, croit Bob Rae. D’autant que les dividendes de la paix promis il y a 15 ans par la chute du mur de Berlin et la fin de la Guerre froide se sont révélés illusoires. Entre nettoyage ethnique et terrorisme international, le monde prend peu à peu conscience de l’importance de la règle du droit et de la gouvernance éthique. Si bien que la reconstruction d’États déchirés par les rivalités ethniques, nationales ou religieuses rendra peut-être ses lettre de noblesse au fédéralisme.

e are entering a time of foreign policy review. Ca n a d a ’ s foreign policy, however much we review it and It is entirely understandable that a new prime renew it, can’t be crafted out of thin air. It will inevitably W minister and a new government would want reflect our interests and our values. It has to start from certain to assess where we are and where we need to be. This is key premises. We are a liberal democracy. We are a federation, not really new: Pierre Trudeau started his prime minister- whose founding was based on the premise that different lan- ship with a much ballyhooed review. The end result was guage groups had to be accommodated in a single country. hardly revolutionary. Canada’s UN, NATO and NORAD We were present at the founding of the UN, NATO, the GATT , commitments were all renewed, and apart from a flirta- NORAD, the Commonwealth and la Francophonie, and have tion with an effort to increase European trade to offset been in the Organization of American States since 1989. the continental embrace, life went on. There is a reason It would be difficult to make the case for a withdrawal for this. from any of these organizations. The NDP continues to have

62 OPTIONS POLITIQUES JUIN-JUILLET 2004 Foreign policy review a formal policy of withdrawing from NATO. But it is hard to make much of a case for a unilateral withdrawal from an organization that is now expanding to include most of Eastern Europe, and whose purpose is now changing from being a Cold War institution to yet another body committed to promot- ing better governance and the protec- tion of democratic institutions. The decision to commit to free trade with the US and Mexico is now irrevocable. There was a profound and healthy debate about the potential benefits and consequences of the com- mitment to the Free Trade Agreement, and NAFTA, but even a federal NDP government would not tear them up. The Canadian economy is more close- ly integrated with the United States than ever before, and this trend is deepening. These are not trends that can be reversed without enacting a set of measures that clearly run counter to the prevailing forces of economics. I don’t say this with any great ideologi- cal enthusiasm, but rather in the spirit of John Kenneth Galbraith, who has written: “The move to a closer associa- Kate Grumbacher, Canadian Embasy tion between the peoples and the insti- The US Capitol viewed from the sixth-floor dining room of the Canadian embassy in tutions of the advanced countries Washington. Having a window on Washington is an essential element of Canadian cannot be resisted. It is on the great foreign policy, writes IRPP Chairman Bob Rae. current of history; the social forces involved are beyond the influence of Washington is a very public well what this means. And while national legislatures, parliaments and bazaar, with congressmen, lobbyists, Canada remains profoundly multilater- politicians. The oratory may oppose it; and an extraordinary range of interests alist in its thinking, this is much less the tide still will run. Nor should one and office seekers attempting to wield true of the United States. From land wish otherwise.” influence. That is the game, and we mines to the International Criminal must be prepared to play it. If we are to Court to Iraq, the US has shown a deter- anada’s prosperity, how individ- be punished for our views, let it not be mination to go its own way. Canada has C ual Canadians live, is irretrievably because we failed to explain. chosen a different path, and this in turn connected to this fact of integration. Tony Blair has made the calcula- poses a serious challenge to our rela- There may be a number of ways we tion that the American relationship is tionship with the Americans. don’t like it, but it defines the world in so fundamental that nothing can get in The underlying strength of our which we live. its way. Jean Chrétien came to a differ- American connection will get us This in turn means that the ent conclusion about Iraq, and his was through the differences, but at every step American relationship is an unavoidable a legitimate choice. It has certainly had of the way we have to realize the stakes. focus of our foreign policy, as it is of our the strong support of public opinion. Much was made in the early days public policy generally. This does not Our deep connection with America after the collapse of the Berlin Wall mean a slavish acceptance of every White poses a profound challenge to us, about the role of “soft power.” There is House utterance, or every salvo from Paul because while we are economically inte- clear strength and validity in stressing Wolfowitz. But it does mean that we have grated, the United States is clearly deter- the importance of values in public pol- to be prepared to spend a lot more time mined to flex its protectionist muscles. icy, including foreign policy. But it is and money explaining to Americans Canadian farmers, lumber producers wrong to suggest as a corollary that who we are and what we do. and countless others know only too with the end of the Cold War that

POLICY OPTIONS 63 JUNE-JULY 2004 Bob Rae

Canada had no need to worry about its changes we associate with the word recognition that in a smaller and much m i l i t a ry capability, or that “hard “globalization,” all these have made more interdependent world “sovereign- power” is either irrelevant or evil. their contribution. In Mexico, for ty” is no longer an absolute, has brought example, one party rule for most of the the federal idea to the fore again. n many respects the world is an even twentieth century meant that while At the conclusion of the Mont I more dangerous and violent place the constitution spoke of the federal Tremblant Conference on federalism than it was in the 1950’s. Peacekeeping nature of the country, the reality was in 1999, Bill Clinton remarked that is expensive, and the con- tinued price of our com- The decision to commit to free trade with the US and Mexico is mitment to it is going to now irrevocable. There was a profound and healthy debate be higher than we realize. How much higher? That about the potential benefits and consequences of the is not easy to determine. commitment to the Free Trade Agreement, and NAFTA, but M i l i t a ry spending, like even a federal NDP government would not tear them up. The health care spending, is Canadian economy is more closely integrated with the United never enough, and the demands of the world States than ever before, and this trend is deepening. around us are apparently inexhaustible. But the theory that the quite different. The same was even “maybe the federal idea isn’t such a end of the Cold War meant that we more true for the Soviet Union. The bad idea after all.” He was right. would be able to rely on a never ending man on horseback had an equally bru- This reality also breaks down the “peace dividend” is illusory. tal effect in Brazil and Nigeria: the fed- old walls between values and inter- There is also a growing realization eral idea is quite incompatible with the ests. Afghanistan seemed a little that the rule of law and governance command control mentality of the c o u n t ry “of which we know little” to matter in the world. The collapse of military hierarchy. borrow Neville Chamberlain’s unfor- state communism should have ended, tunate phrase. Yet its Taliban regime where it still existed, the illusion that his renewal is not at all confined became a training ground for those the path to successful development lies T to countries that have a federalist responsible for 9/11. Canada was through an ever expanding public sec- tradition. Countries have long had to right to support the invasion of to r . The profound shift in thinking and struggle with the simple truth that Afghanistan and the overthrow of the practice in both China and India is a geography is rarely synonymous with Taliban regime. But we have to accept reflection of the growing sense that automatic homogeneity. Ethnic, lin- that these interventions are expen- successful development requires a com- guistic, racial and religious conflicts sive, and will require the deployment mitment to innovation, enterprise, have become the dominant issue fac- of substantial resources over a sub- effective markets and a set of rules and ing the world order today. Wars after stantial period of time. laws to ensure that there is some con- 1945 have been as much within coun- These two requirements, a will- nection between effort and reward. tries as between them, with disastrous ingness to devote resources, and a There has also been a profound consequences for peace and security. capacity to do so on a sustained basis, resurgence in interest in the federal It is no longer soldiers dying in the will require greater co-ordination and idea in the last decade. What is hap- millions, but civilians. From Rwanda leadership than we have seen for pening today in South Africa, Spain, to Cambodia, from the Balkans to some time. The work of Foreign Mexico, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, East Ti m o r, the battleground is within Affairs and International Tr a d e , Russia, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Sudan, countries that are unable to resolve Defence, and the Canadian Interna- Ethiopia, Iraq, Cyprus, and Sri Lanka, the conflicts of what Michael tional Development Agency have to to mention just a few countries, are a Ignatieff has called “blood and be brought together. Silos have to be reflection of some important common belonging.” broken down. Policy coherence needs tendencies that need to be understood. Canada dealt with ethnic, linguistic to be matched by organizational The resurgence of the federal idea and religious conflict long before it was change. Review must be followed by has at its core many different causes. fashionable. Our love affair with the leadership and decision. The vitality of the values of democra- federal conversation is no longer a pure- cy, the revolutions in the politics of ly domestic affair. The collapse of one Fo r mer Ontario premier Bob Rae, a partn e r identity and human rights, the twin party states, the demands of identity, in the Goodmans law firm, is chairman of collapse of apartheid and bureaucratic the urge to local empowerment, the the Board of Directors of the IRPP and communism, the impact of the tech- insistence on greater openness and pr esident of the Forum of Federations. nological revolution, the economic transparency in government, and the br a e @ g o o d m a n s . c a

64 OPTIONS POLITIQUES JUIN-JUILLET 2004