Canada, tweeting from the sidelines

When a country doesn’t matter militarily or diplomatically, when no one is sharing intelligence with it anymore, all that it has left are…empty words, basically. Piety and preaching. That’s it.

So, now, when it comes to world affairs, Canada is a season’s ticket holder in the nosebleed seats. Holding up homemade signs, hollering, hoping to get on TV, while the real action is playing out elsewhere, far, far away.

Ever since 2004, when Paul Martin and his brain trust thought it would be a good idea to meet the homicidal Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi in a tent in the desert, Canada has mattered less and less internationally. It all happened gradually. We became a bit of an afterthought, and then a punchline. Donald Trump, in particular, knows this. He’s noticed that the rest of the world hasn’t rallied to our side, as he’s openly coveted us as his 51st state.

It was not always thus. At one time – say, when Mike Pearson won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for resolving the Suez Crisis, or when Brian Mulroney fought to end apartheid in the Eighties, or when Jean Chretien refused to participate in George W. Bush’s war against Saddam Hussein in 2003 – Canada truly mattered on the international stage. Not so much anymore.

In recent years, we’ve been reduced to thumbing out sanctimonious tweets from the sidelines, far removed from the action. In both official languages, bien sur.

So, Prime Minister Mark Carney issued a tweet on Thursday. Here’s part of what it said:

“Canada condemns the Israeli government’s failure to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza. Israel’s control of aid distribution must be replaced by comprehensive provision of humanitarian assistance led by international organizations. Many of these are holding significant Canadian-funded aid which has been blocked from delivery to starving civilians. This denial of humanitarian aid is a violation of international law.”

[To read more, subscribe here]