The Speech From the Throne: Looking Outward

From the time that Lester Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Liberal approach to Canadian foreign policy has come to mean advancing Canadian values on the world stage: peace, tolerance, cooperation, security, stability and respect for democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Canadians want their government to play an active, independent, internationalist role in the world.

Nothing better illustrates the ongoing commitment to this tradition than Canada's leadership since 1994 in achieving a treaty to ban anti-personnel mines. Thanks to the leadership of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs a large international consensus has been formed on this issue. Indeed, 90 countries recently signed a treaty in Oslo, with an additional 30 announcing their intention to attend the formal signing ceremony in Ottawa this December.

Our government has carried this proud legacy forward in our first mandate: We led the international fight against the Helms-Burton Law; focused international attention on the need to reform the IMF and the World Bank to meet the needs of developing nations and the challenges of globalization; we established the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, to update and modernize peacekeeping training; and fought to save a vital food source for the world by acting against overfishing in the North Atlantic.

We have also had tremendous success in our campaign for liberalized trade. Breaking down trade barriers, both within Canada and around the world, helps ensure markets for Canadian goods and services and provides the best opportunity for greater world prosperity.

Canada's rich and diverse natural heritage is a source of national pride and international acclaim. We both delight in our magnificent environment and fear for its future. Maintaining what is good and improving what has been degraded requires constant effort. It is an effort that we will make.

We are also committed to working in the international community to promote sustainable development and to achieve practical solutions to global environmental problems, such as greenhouse gas emissions and toxic chemicals. And we will continue to address the serious international problem of over-fishing. We will act at home to reduce our contribution to these problems.

In this great Canadian tradition, we will undertake the following initiatives:

• We will promote Canadian values on the world stage by co-operating with like-minded countries to revitalize the United Nations and other key multilateral institutions. We will work directly with other countries to enhance and promote human rights, peace building and democracy.
• We will destroy the Department of National Defence's stock of land mines, in advance of the signing of the Ottawa Treaty in December, to continue Canada's leadership and illustrate our commitment to a global ban. Canada will continue to work toward an accompanying international strategy to help land mine victims recover and civilian populations reclaim their land from these mines.
• We will continue to move forward with reforms to the Canadian military.
• We will continue working for freer trade around the world.