Earlier this year the BBC World Service conducted a poll of 28,000 people in 27 countries to determine how 12 countries lined up in terms of their negative and positive influence on world events.
Canada was ranked the most positively influential country in the world. (It tied with Japan in positive votes but had fewer negative votes.)
This is important because we Canadians don't often see ourselves as leaders of world opinion. It's time that we begin to not only recognize the influence we can have and to wield this influence with vigour.
Canada has made the mistake of aligning too closely with the U.S. of late and we need to pull back from this position and return to one of friendly distance.
At the current G-8, as one example, the environment stands to take a hit if Canada backs the U.S.' desire to forgo caps on carbon emissions. Canada has already backed out of its support of Kyoto. It's not too fantastic to state that continuing along this trajectory would be fatal.
Canada has always been a strong player on the international stage. It's time to get back there.
Colleen
Poll chart
Full poll results
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2 comments:
I TOLD you: EVERYBODY likes Canadians. This result comes as no surprise to me, yet I'm glad you shared it; I'll pass it along.
And you're right: Canada needs to distance itself from the U.S., at least until the current administration changes.
Politics are (is?) cyclic. As bad as things look now, they can only get better.
P.S. Thanks for your friendship. Sorry about . . . you know.
Hahaha. I would love to think that everyone loves Canadians as you say. I think we suffer from a seriously deranged combination of self-righteousness and low self-esteem. Like a girl without a prom date who claims she didn't really want to go to that exercise in teen torment. (We didn't really want all the power that THEY have. Really. We'll just sit up here in the North, bickering with each other and threatening to separate like an old married couple, freezing our asses off and be PERFECTLY happy in the knowledge that we didn't have a civil war.)
And about T.B... you have to admit she's really funny. More like a caricature than someone real. Wielding the Bible with all that evangelical fervor. Of course, I do have an odd sense of humour.
And thanks for hanging out with me. I enjoy your company.
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