Wednesday 3 April 2013

Trio of Shame I: Clark Says Canada is Losing Its Influence Abroad

It's always interesting when a former Prime Minister comments on what is going on at the moment, but it's especially so when the ex-PM criticizes his political descendants.  While Joe Clark was a Progressive Conversative (which always seemed to be an oxymoron, but seems to be less so day by day) so far he's mostly kept his mouth shut when it comes to the current Conservative government.

Yet today Le Devoir reports Clark has taken on the Harperites for pulling out of the UN the UN Convention on Desertification.  "You can't withdraw from organizations as important as this because, sometimes, they don't agree with you," Clark said in a telephone interview with the newspaper.  "In fact, on the contrary, the bst thing to do is when there is disagreement is to stay and to defend your point of view in order ot convince them that you are right." (My translation of: "Vous ne pouvez pas rester à l’écart d’organisations aussi précieuses parce que, parfois, elles sont en désaccord avec vous. En fait, au contraire, la meilleure chose à faire lorsqu’il y a des désaccords c’est de défendre votre point de vue auprès de ceux qui ont à être convaincus."

Clark's statement appear  not to have been picked up elsewhere, which is a shame.  It is a bit of a consolation, though, that there are others speaking out about the Harper government's action on this matter.
 

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