This is disgraceful. Canada’s foreign affairs seem to be in the hands of the Three Stooges. Recent events in Jerusalem, Kyiv and Hollywood appear to be making the point.
First of all, Prime Minister Harper leads an invasion of Israel. That is a small country and they hardly need more gawkers, self-serving politicians and rabbis cluttering the landscape. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu obviously wondered at what they wanted, it was low tourist season in Israel and “Bibi” appreciated the hotel room bookings and restaurant revenue. And, not many people are satisfied with having a bird sanctuary named for them. It is like the stand of trees, named after more than 50 rich American Jews who are unlikely to check up on “their own” forest.
But when the Harper sent Larry (in the person of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird) on a fact-finding mission to Kyiv, Canada’s foreign relations hit a new low. Having John Baird wag his finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin is hardly about to produce “Peace in our time.”
What Baird also does not understand is that diplomacy does not include comparing Mr. Putin’s actions in Ukraine to Adolph Hitler’s actions in the Sudetenland. While there are similarities in the situation, Mr. Putin hardly wants to destroy all of his possible gains at the Olympic Games in Sochi and, after all, Ukraine might have sold him the Crimean Peninsula for much less than $52 billion.
It is Curly (in the person of Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford) parading around Los Angeles who is is performing as our Ambassador Plenipotentiary. He might be Prime Minister Harper’s fishing buddy but he is sure not the ideal person to send out to represent us even on Grade B late night television. While some street people and local characters around Hollywood were delighted with the opportunity to have their pictures taken with Toronto’s enigmatic mayor, they might find he has a short shelf life.
You can probably lay all the blame on Moe (in the person of Prime Minister Stephen Harper). Moe was always the schemer and trouble maker—whether things ended up as he intended, or not. He was always asserting his authority by bopping his colleagues. It was not something we encouraged our children to emulate but we could only laugh at those antics in the early days of television.
But the world has changed. Larry, Curly and Moe are dated and shop-worn. They sit on today’s remaindered shelf, marked down and with few takers. It seems so appropriate for Mr. Harper and his friends.
-30-
Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]