Bambi would like to share a thoughtful article by Mr. Antoine Robitaille, published in the Journal de Montréal today about the appointment of Ms. Mélanie Jolie to the position of Foreign Minister (oups… her ministry is called “Global Affairs Canada“, Bambi forgot :)). This is one of the most prestigious government positions in our country.
First of all, of course, congratulations to Ms. Joly and best wishes. Second, her choice for this position speaks volumes, perhaps not only about her own vision, but also/rather about the vision of Mr. Trudeau (et al.?) for our country.
The article featured in this post describes Ms. Joly’s vision. Bambi will allow herself to add some comments before sharing it with you.
In addition to her (past or continuing?) globalist vision, Ms. Joly’s view of her/our country (described in Mr. Robitaille’s article) can be described in French as being “à l’eau de rose“, which means sappy or rosy in English. This makes Bambi remember a funny comment made by one her childhood friends about Mr. Trudeau during one of her earlier visits to Beirut. This friend came up with a cute name for him. She referred to him as Papa Noël (or Santa Claus). Without having anything against him (she even liked him), she was lucid enough to see that he did not seem to be grounded enough in reality. Perhaps this is the image we get of Mr. Trudeau. Perhaps deep inside, him and his government know more what they are doing (Bambi still wants to hope…).
Well, bearing her childhood friend’s comment in mind, Bambi is now wondering about the following: if Mr. Trudeau is truly Santa, would Ms. Joly be his Star Fairy (or la Fée des étoiles) :)? Maybe, even if she is smart (in addition to being as beautiful as her name). Thus, thankfully, she has the potential to learn and acquire the needed experience in her new prestigious position. At least, she does not call the Talibans her brothers (which is already a wise start :)).
Very seriously now, although Canada is not a significant player in the world, we cannot afford to be too naive or not to think of our OWN interests FIRST, as all “sovereign” states do/must do. Indeed, it is Bambi’s hope that Canada will not make Lebanon’s mistakes with this regard…
This being said, here is a quick translation of Mr. Robitaille’s article (https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/10/28/joly-ministre-du-gouvernement-mondial-1):
“What is the worldview of our Dominion’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly?
“Does she just have one?” All the bad tongues will scoff her (but, by mocking this politician with a sort of fierceness, paradoxically they will propel her ever higher). Yet we can say that there is something like a “vision of the world” in her book entitled Changer les règles du jeu (Québec Amérique) [Changing the rules of the game (Quebec America)] – an essay full of the obvious and poorly substantiated assertions – published in 2014.
Foundation
At the time, she had just left her position as the leader of the municipal party “Vrai changement pour Montréal” [Real change for Montreal], which she had founded for the 2013 election. In interviews, she said she was happy to have left politics in order to “say more” directly what she thought ”.
In the introduction, she unveiled the programmatic aspect of the book: “I deliver this essay, which is also the foundation of my future actions.”
During the 2019 election campaign, I interviewed her on QUB radio for 25 minutes, reminding her of certain passages from her book. Several of her “political actions” were at odds with what she wrote in Changing the Rules of the Game. Notably, the idea that multinationals should levy taxes on consumption. But also that “any company or person who benefits from accessibility to a state market pays accordingly for this access” (p.179).
As the Minister of Canadian Heritage, she had instead given up “applying the rules of the game”. Remember her complacent policy towards Netflix, among others, which was exempt from levying the tax. She has since admitted that she should have “done things differently.”
Let us hope that as Minister of Foreign Affairs, she will work on international agreements which will force the GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) to pay their due to states.
Sovereignty
Moreover, the new liberal foreign minister seemed hostile, in her 2014 book, to the idea of state sovereignty, one of the foundations of international relations.
“The states of today must agree to relinquish some of their powers,” she insisted. In particular “in environmental matters”, where they should “absolutely agree to […] subordinate themselves to planetary principles of carbon management” (p.144). She believed that it was necessary for states to accept “binding global agreements” so that states in breach could be “punished”.
In certain passages of the essay, the idea of a world government emerges: “It is therefore absolutely necessary that a planetary power of influence is put in place so that the environmental consciousness in the citizen can develop”. (p.138)
This “global centralization” that she calls for should, however, be accompanied by a shedding of nation-states towards “local communities” (p.145). In Canada, to the provinces? No, these are missing from Ms. Joly’s vision in 2014. In her view, cities should inherit more power and money.
Here we are swimming in post-nationalism, according to which “the individual is a political institution in himself that must be respected” (p.140). In short, “in the 21st century, belonging to a country is no longer an end in itself” (p.131).”
But what kind of international politics can we really build from such a position?“
