Speech by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to the American Society of Newspaper Editors

Today, I want to talk to you about my country. Where we are going. What our priorities are. For ourselves. And as an active member of the hemisphere. And the world community.

I know that the heart of Texas might seem like an odd place to talk about the soul of Canada. But I think that this gathering, and the presence of the leaders of the three North American nations is a good occasion to talk about the things that bring our countries together. And the things that make us different.

In Canada, our government has been in office for a year and a half.

It has been a time of change in Canada. But also a time when we have emphasized fundamental Canadian values. We are facing problems that are similar to all Western democracies. And we are trying to address them in a way that is right for Canada. That is consistent with the values of Canadians. And that binds Canadians together.

When we took office we inherited an exhausted, demoralized and fractured country. Canadians were very cynical about politics. Years of polarization had left deep scars. The economy had been through the worst recession since the Thirties. And the government was broke.

We have run an administration that has been straight with Canadians. That has not played favourites with regions or sectors of society. We have worked hard to restore integrity in the political process. We have governed without bells and whistles. But with an emphasis on competence, fairness and honesty.

And in return, Canadians are believing in themselves and their country again.

The economy is now growing faster than any other nation in the G-7, with 4.5% growth last year and similar levels projected for this year. Unemployment is down. Our exports are way up.

Now, I am not trying to paint too rosy a picture. We still have serious fiscal problems. But we are addressing them. We came to office with a plan to trim spending and focus on jobs and economic growth. We know that a strong economy is the essence of a strong society. And a strong economy is essential to maintain, and one day, I hope, expand the social programs that are part of the fabric of Canadian life.

That is why, in February, we introduced the toughest budget in 50 years. It was not easy to do. We made cuts to programs we would have preferred to keep. We did not cut because we like cutting.

We cut government spending because continuing deficits weaken our economy. And we tried to be fair - to all our regions and to individual Canadians. We set our priorities in keeping with Canadian values.

What are those values? Well, a few years ago, a famous Texan coined the term "a kinder and gentler" nation. Well, that is what we in Canada are. That is what we want to remain.

Our most important values as a nation are tolerance and sharing. We know that government cannot and should not do everything. But we also know it can and must be a force for good in society. And during times of great change, government has an obligation to help people adapt.

Most important, we know that citizenship has responsibilities. Individual rights are important in Canada. Very important. I was the justice minister that helped enshrine a Charter of Rights in the Constitution. And it was one of the proudest moments of my life.

But just as important are the responsibilities we have for each other and for our community.

That is why health care is so important in Canada.

There is a wide consensus in our country about preserving our distinctive state-funded health care system called Medicare. Under our system, you can go to the doctor of your choice. You are admitted to a hospital if you need to be. Period. Not if you have enough money. Or the right private plan. The fact is that no one in Canada needs to worry about medical bills. It is one of our proudest achievements. Canadians want to keep Medicare. And we will.

I believe that is one thing that makes us a "kinder, gentler" society.

So does the emphasis we place on safe, liveable communities.

Being able to walk down the street, to attend school, to visit a park without fear of violence are important to us. They are not defined in balance sheets or flow charts. But they are important measures of a society. We are proud of our safe, liveable communities. And we want to keep them that way.

That is why, for example, last night the House of Commons voted for the toughest gun control legislation in our history and among the toughest in the world. And it has the broad support of a huge majority of Canadians.

I also believe that our unique bilingual nature and our very diverse, multicultural population have made us a "kinder, gentler" society. They have certainly made us a more exciting country. A more cosmopolitan and sophisticated one. A more economically competitive one too - that is uniquely positioned to appeal to markets around the world.

Most important, I think our diversity and our two languages have really given us a very special global outlook. Because of our history, because of our population, Canada has been referred to by some as the first "post-nationalist" country.

I know that the extra effort we have had to make to understand each other has helped us understand the world. And believe me, Canada is a nation that is very much focused on the world beyond our borders.

And our sense of the responsibility of citizenship that I spoke of a moment ago extends to our responsibility as an international citizen.

It is a sense of responsibility that dates back to our participation half a century ago in the Second World War. We fought side by side with the United States and other allied nations.

And we made a contribution that far exceeded our small size.

Just as we fought with other nations to win the war against fascism, we worked with the nations of the world to ensure peace in the years immediately following the war.

Canada was an active partner in establishing the multilateral organizations born after the war which still exist today. The United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions, NATO.

And we have spent the last 50 years actively committed to their success.

That commitment is stronger today than ever. Canada continues to participate in virtually every multilateral peace keeping mission in the world. We are in Haiti. And last week we recommitted our peacekeeping troops to the former Yugoslavia. Canadians are proud, very proud of our peacekeeping tradition, and the brave men and women who keep it going today. UN peacekeeping forces were a Canadian invention - my predecessor Lester Pearson earned the Nobel Peace Prize for this innovation.

There are countries, sadly, where events are moving backward. In Bosnia, in Rwanda, Somalia and the other places of war and destruction. Places where it is reasonable to ask whether we can do anything at all. Or even whether we should care at all.

I believe we should care. I believe we do care.

I am relieved that Canadians are still moved by the sight of human suffering. And that they demand that their government do something. We cannot always fix things. And we do not have the resources to act alone. But things would be much worse if we didn't even try. If we collectively lose the capacity to care about others in foreign countries, we will eventually become hardened to the fate of our fellow citizens.

If we believe that international systems cannot address the most difficult and pressing problems, we will become cynical about our ability to organize ourselves towards any common purpose.

That is why the United Nations is so important. And why it must be reformed to play a more relevant role. Canada supports the United Nations because it expresses our highest aspirations for ourselves. The UN stands for the rule of law, for social, economic and political justice, for negotiation and the peaceful resolution of disputes.

I understand frustrations with the UN. That is why Canada is at the lead of efforts to reform it. But to paraphrase Winston Churchill, the UN is the worst global forum in the world - except for all the alternatives.

We have an obligation to work to make it more effective and relevant. Isolationism, no matter how seductive, is not an option. History has taught us that. And what was true fifty years ago is even more true today in a world made much, much smaller by technology.

That is not just true in terms of international geo-politics. It is also the case in terms of trade.

Protectionism is the economic equivalent of isolationism. It cannot work in today's world. The fact is that open trade is the surest way toward the jobs and economic growth we all want for our countries.

It certainly is for Canada. We rely more on trade with other nations than virtually any other major industrial nation in the world. And that is why we have been - and will continue to be - at the forefront of efforts to break down trade barriers and actively pursue new markets.

That is why trade has been one of the top priorities of our government.

Last fall, I led the most successful trade mission in Canadian history - the Team Canada Trade Mission to China, which included virtually every provincial premier and hundreds of business leaders. We brought home deals that will create thousands of jobs in Canada. And just two months ago, I led a second trade mission, this time to the dynamic economies of Latin America.

Trade will continue to be a major priority for us. That is why getting the new World Trade Organization up and running is so important to us. That is why expanding the NAFTA to include Chile, and ultimately creating a Free Trade Area of the Americas - including all the nations in the hemisphere - is so important.

That is why the decision at APEC to create a Pacific Free Trade Zone is so important.

Canada worked hard for all these advances. We have seen what trade can do for a relatively small country like ours. We know what it can do around the world. It improves lives. Builds communities. Provides stability. Ensures peace.

This commitment we have to the global community was most dramatically evident in recent weeks, as we took decisive action to prevent environmental disaster in the North Atlantic.

We have been concerned for years about foreign overfishing in the waters just outside our territorial limit.

We have already lived through the overfishing of the cod stocks. We will live with the results of that disaster for decades. We could not allow it to happen again.

We want international law to address clearly the responsibility of all states to sustain and manage the global commons. You know, fish swim across territorial boundaries. And they don't carry passports or visas.

The way to conserve stocks of fish that move across borders -- straddling stocks as they are called -- is to conclude a UN convention on the subject that will obligate states to promote sustainable management.

But in the absence of a multilateral agreement, we could not allow yet another species to be overfished to the point of extinction.

As a responsible global citizen we had to take action to protect a resource that belongs to the world. And we did. And we believe we helped avert another environmental disaster.

Our role as a global citizen will be very evident in June, in Halifax, when we host the G-7 Summit. Russia, too, will be there for some of our meetings. Many of the challenges I have identified will be on our agenda.

And we are providing momentum for what we hope will be a historic agreement now being negotiated between Canada and the European Union. We hope it will serve as a model agreement. To preserve fish stocks around the world for the benefit of humanity.

To the extent that such wide-ranging discussions can have a general theme, it will be on strengthening international institutions for the 21st century. We will want to look at financial, economic, trade and political institutions, to ensure they are up to the job at hand. That includes bringing the institutions we created collectively at Bretton Woods up to date. We won't have all the solutions at Halifax. But we can certainly make a good start.

The G-7 is not a decision-making body. We have no authority to rewrite the rules of international engagement -- economic or political.

But we can help to move things along. We can draw on expertise and experience unmatched in the world, and demonstrate real leadership. Beyond Halifax, it will be up to the global community and the global institutions to take up the challenges.

And you can be sure that Canada will play its part. At home and as a global citizen, we will continue to build a country and a world consistent with the values we believe in.