With the collapse of the postwar global order, Canada scrambles to redefine itself on the world stage. Mostly, this is about trade and military buildup. But there's a critical factor that's been absent from news cycles, and that's our role to fill the chasm left by the abandonment of the U.S. in the arena of global development.
Too often, foreign assistance is met with platitudes about spending the money here, and our needs come first. But this simplistic notion is blind to the fact, as we've seen all too clearly in the last few years, that Canada doesn't exist in a self-sufficient vacuum.
What happens around the world has a direct impact on our economy and indeed our very health. Helping the development of emerging countries into robust trading partners, with stable democratic leadership and the capacity to fight emerging diseases, is to our own benefit. The alternative is to push these states into the arms of hostile regimes.
Along with a greater military presence in the world, it's critical that Canada also adopts a greater humanitarian stance through foreign assistance.
Nathaniel Poole
Victoria
