Jeff Davis reports today that the Canadian government will be sending the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Leonard Edwards, as the Canadian official who will be attending the opening of the United Nations General Assembly next week.
The decision to send Mr. Edwards has drawn some ire from Canadian foreign policy experts because of his low level of seniority. While most states usually send either their head of state/ambassador or their foreign affairs minister, Canada will only be sending a civil servant – a high ranking one at that but still a civil servant and not an official of the government.
Lloyd Axworthy says he can’t understand why there won’t be at least a senior minister at the important diplomatic event. That surprises me because I can fully see why Mr. Harper or Mr. Emerson will not be able to attend.
Turn on the television for five minutes and you will probably see an advertisement from one of the major political parties or a news story covering the election. This means Canada must be going through a federal election! This is quite an important time in Canadian politics and the direction our country moves in, but that’s not the whole story: Canada doesn’t really have a government right now!
The way I understand it, when the Prime Minister goes to the Governor General to ask him or her to dissolve parliament and the GG agrees there technically is no longer a government until after the election results are in. We do not have a system like the United States where the election occurs three months before the new president takes office. With this in mind, it would be inappropriate to send Mr. Harper or Mr. Emerson to speak to the UN because they do not actually hold office right now. They are the incumbents (well not Emerson because he is not running again) but they are not the actual Prime Minister or Foreign Affairs Minister at the time. Because of this, Canada’s next highest foreign affairs official would then have to be Mr. Edwards because the civil service is separate from the political leaders and is not affected by the election. Therefore, by sending Mr. Edwards to the UN, Canada is actually sending its highest CURRENT foreign affairs official.
I will admit that this is unfortunate timing as there are extremely important issues to discuss at the UN, for example the Security Council elections and the UN mission in Afghanistan. It would be better if Canada could send its Prime Minister or Foreign Affairs Minister to the meetings but this truly isn’t possible. I believe that the chosen path is the most responsible because any elected official that would go to the meetings would not be able to say for certain that they will be in the next parliament let alone the governing party. By sending Mr. Edwards, other countries can have the assurance that Mr. Edwards will be around Oct. 15 to pass on their messages.
Think about it; what is worse for Canada’s international image: to send an official that is technically low ranking in seniority or to send someone who can make all kinds of promises but may not even be in parliament three weeks from now?
I think the question answers itself…
- blenCOWe
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