Event Summary:
CIC Toronto’s Members Second Annual
Midsummer's Evening Patio Get-Together
With Guest Speaker Douglas Gould
President, Canadian International Council
July 10, 2008
Summary by Andrew Do, Student at the University of Toronto
It is on July 10, on a warm summer evening at an Alice Fazooli that I was first introduced to the CIC. Douglas Gould, the President of the CIC, opened the evening by reminiscing on the history of CIC and was how well it managed to do in recent years. Tthe CIC has managed to better fund itself and Mr. Gould certainly seemed happy about that, joking that this is the first time he saw a “positive number” in CIC’s annual revenue.
The recent success of CIC was not all that was addressed however. He proceeded to elucidate on three foreign policy objectives which the Canadian government has not sufficiently attended to. The first foreign policy objective which the Canadian government has failed to sufficiently attend to is with regards to the war in Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan have Canadian forces seeing the bloodiest battles ever since the inception of the war in Afghanistan. Moreover, it is doubtful that with all things being equal, that Canadians can make much a difference in Afghanistan as the mission is severely understaffed and under-resourced.
The next foreign policy objective that concerns Canadians is our relationship with emerging powers, in particular with China and India. It is an issue of vital concern for Canada’s future as those two countries will eventually become key actors in the world and yet, as Mr. Gould notes, we have invested too few resources towards improving diplomatic relations with both China and India. With the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, our relationship with China has in fact deteriorated.
The third foreign policy objective which should concern all Canadians is the upcoming recent elections with the USA and by extension, Canada’s relationship with the rest of the Americas. Canada commits $540 million to Haiti, the 2nd largest recipient of Canadian foreign aid. In a way, this foreign policy concerns is almost related to improving diplomatic relationships with emerging great powers, given that many have speculated that South America can emerge as a great world power.
However, it is our relationship with our American neighbours to the south that probably concerns us the most, especially in light of the upcoming US elections. The upcoming election in the USA is by far one of the most highly anticipated elections in American history. Not only will it be the first time that an African-American can become the first president of the USA, but it also marks the end of the controversial presidential term of George W. Bush. Given the unpopularity of the Republican party in the White House, most have come to predict that the Republican nominee, John McCain is bound to lose. It is a pity according to Mr. Gould as John McCain holds Canada in high prestige as evident in a speech he delivered on June 20th 2008. Although Mr. Gould is confident that Barack Obama will ultimately become president of the USA in 2009, the race will be a lot closer than most will think.
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