Why Stephen Harper has no time for the UN: Chris Hall

..'cause they snubbed him and his Israel policies when Canada tried to get a Securiy Council seat, the last time round.

They did. But his rules of engagement on the UN is something I actually appreciate with this government. The UN--well, in particualrly the General Assembly--is prone to frequent bouts of dingbattery, so limiting exposure and engaging on specific terms is a good idea, in my books.

This government drags an inordinate amount of American Neocon baggage around with them (like the robo-call thing, stylish with all those young Republicans). A lot of this stuff is just plain un-Canadian. The center is where most of the Canadian public reside, politically. Just because they believe that the Republicans do "cutting edge" stuff doesn't make it appropriate for this, somewhat different culture that we have here. Anyway, it is definitely stylish among the American neocons to despise the U.N. outright (There's a UN. army just waiting in the wings to invade, then to go door-to-door to take away their guns, as they sez in that Reagan era classic, "Red Dawn".

This is a case of the chicken and egg - one snubbed the other (you decide which came first) and the other retaliated. Then the other one replied in kind, and so on.

I guess if he doesn't care about our declining influence at the UN, it's no big deal.

I also fully agree our policy shouldn't be held hostage by the dingbats in the third world, but as long as Harper persists in this kind of behaviour, we'll never get on the Security Council or any other meaningful role at the UN.

The UN, as flawed as it is, allows us to punch well above our weight far more often than NATO and other western-dominated organizations - simply because in ALL of those, Canada is the equivalent of the third world nations in the UN.

We're less influential and respected in an organization that doesn't matter that much anymore but we're a lot more influential and respected in several other much more important organizations that do matter? That's a trade off that I can live comfortably with.

It's more of a liberal dream than a realist one that the UN was the only thing that counted. For the rest of us it's been a non-issue for decades. Canada not getting gold stars anymore from the Swiss or Scandanavians for not keeping up our end in a corrupt organization that's increasingly run solely for the benefit of the third-world dictators, Islamic runts, and leftover Marxists that populate the place is completely irrelevant to me. Give me meaningful conversations with Russia and Brazil at the G20, or with foundations led by Bill Gates, any day of the week over tedious committee hearings led by scum from Zimbabwe or Iran. If Canada's indifference towards the UN hastens the demise of that clownshow then, by all means, speed the process up.

Like when?

Certainly back in the 1950s and 1960s, when peacekeeping was useful for the tasks it had to do, Canada certainly played a significant role in international affairs, even with the giants of the USSR and the USA.

However, in my lifetime? Not so much. Even though Canada, as a small, but economically wealthy and politically stable country, might not have as much importance in organizations like NATO or the G20, those organizations, in my view, accomplish a lot more, and certainly don't face the troubles the UN does today.

That's just it - in the G20 and other mid-sized organizations, we're the runt 'o the litter. At least in the UN, we can claim 'middle power' status.

If we sat on the Security Council, our voice might actually be heard when we talked about Iran, Syria or North Korea - instead, virtually nobody cares what we say on those issues (and many others) - even in friendly places like NATO or the G8.

I'd say our voices are heard much more, and by organizations that matter, than they ever were when we knelt at the feet of the almighty UN.

I no longer see any prestige value in being involved in any of the UN's activities, at least not as long as vile dictatorships have an equal voice along with those of legitimate democracies. Having some fawning members of the diplomatic corps telling us on the CBC that the others "like us, they really really like us" is totally irrelevant to me.

We're the 11th largest economy in the world (and of the G20), so when it comes to the G20 (Group of 20 Major Economies) we are still middle of the pack.

The runt of the G20 litter would be South Africa. Our GDP is larger than South Africa's, Argentina's, and Saudi Arabia's GDP .

Some runt eh?



Yeah, shame we didn't get a real Security Council seat like the rest of the Allies did. Must not have bled enough for the cause.

Getting a rotating council seat is like sitting at the kiddie table at thanksgiving.

The UN showed how irrelevant it was during the Rwanda Genocide.

Frankly after the 2010 UNSC debacle I honestly don't think much of the UN and doubt I ever will again. They've proven themselves inept and useless a few times before, but 2010 was a heavy handed slap in the face to this country considering the serious heavy lifting we'd been engaged in relative to our competition.

So for the future I hope Canada acts in concert/leads with NATO, G8, or G20 initiatives.

Let the UN spiral into irrelevancy.

I don't seee the point (or the benefit) of having "middle power" status in a place like the UN where representatives from corrupt dictatorships sit on (and sometimes even chair) committees like ones on human rights and so on.

The UN is a joke.