Inauguration Dinner for the Lester B. Pearson Chair of International Relations (Oxford University)
February 22, 1996
Toronto, Ontario
It is a privilege and a pleasure to honour a great Canadian tonight,
Lester B. Pearson.
A privilege because, more than anyone else, he showed Canadians
why international affairs matter to each and every one of us.
Canadians responded by taking up the challenges of internationalism.
And Mr. Pearson showed the world that Canada matters to all who
value peace above war; tolerance above hate; cooperation above
conflict.
He taught all of us that Canada can make a difference when we
pull together and work for common goals.
It is a personal pleasure because Prime Minister Pearson was my
first boss in Ottawa when I worked for him as Parliamentary Secretary
in 1965. The establishment of the Lester B. Pearson Chair of
International Relations at Oxford University honours the man I
knew -- his intellect, his love of the university, his great affection
for Britain and for St. Johns College where he studied as a Massey
Scholar in the 1920s.
He was a pragmatic man who looked to the future rather than dwelling
in the past. He would have been delighted in the establishment
of this Chair. It is a living testimonial that combines three
of his greatest passions -- Canada, international affairs, and
scholarship. All that is missing is baseball.
The words "passion" and "pragmatism" may seem
an unlikely combination; but in Lester Pearson, they sat together
comfortably.
He was a passionate internationalist, not only because he was
committed to cooperation among nations, but because he understood
its importance to Canada.
In 1948, he said: "For Canada, bruised by two world wars
and one world depression, decisions taken in far-away places have
a vital importance for the village square. There is no escaping
today the results and the obligations that flow from the interdependence
of nations..."
Although interdependence affects all nations, it affects some
more than others. Mr. Pearson understood that Canada was too
integrated in the world to isolate itself from "the consequences
of international collective decisions."
However, he also argued that we did not have sufficient power
to "ensure that (our) voice will be effective in making those
decisions."
In this one observation, he set the course for post-war Canadian
foreign policy; the commitment to a rules-based system where interdependence
could be "civilized", where all countries -- large and
small -- could look to international law to protect their interests.
Mr. Pearson understood the need for ideals in foreign policy,
but he was not an abstract idealist. He was a pragmatist, a man
very much of this world. He spent his life pointing out the connections
between our immediate needs at home and our higher aspirations
for a prosperous and just world at peace.
In 1953, he told an American audience that, for Canada, our first
interest is peace, because "peace for us means there must
be peace in the international community."
Our second interest, he said, is the "welfare and prosperity
of our people, which is inseparable from the welfare and prosperity
of others."
Our third concern, he concluded, "less tangible than peace
and economic well-being but no less important, is our deep attachment
to certain principles rooted in our history and in our experience
as Canadians."
Hindsight, we are told, is always 20/20. What was remarkable about
Lester Pearson was his foresight, his ability to see the future
in the details of the present.
In Mr. Pearson's time, Canada was a middle power attempting to
play a useful international role in the aftermath of World War
Two. Today, we are doing the same in the post-Cold War era.
Of course, there have been enormous changes over the last forty
years. The communist world has collapsed. Nations that were
once poor have become major industrial powers. We have a global
marketplace driven by technology. Power has become less concentrated,
and is as much economic as political.
Today, countries like Canada worry about international competition,
not international communism.
We have made great progress. There have been big gains in prosperity
around the world. We have a better understanding of the links
between physical, social, economic, environmental and political
security.
The principle of global citizenship is closer to reality than
at any time in history.
Many of the challenges are different than the ones of four decades
ago. But, sadly, many of the old problems remain.
Peace remains elusive for millions around the world.
The rights of nations and the rights of individuals under international
law must still be defended.
The gap between rich countries and poor, between strong nations
and weak, is far too wide.
The right balance between economic development and a healthy environment
must be established.
We have much work to do, and we want to get on with it.
To do that well, we need the support and help of all Canadians.
In one of his most remarkable insights, Mr. Pearson said in a
1951 speech:
"Foreign affairs are now the business of every Canadian family
and the responsibility of every Canadian citizen. That includes
you and also the minister for External Affairs. I hope that
we will together be able to bring to these problems, so complicated
and so exacting, good judgment, calm objectivity, and a sense
of deep responsibility."
That is more true today than ever before.
That is why our government has made an effort to consult Parliament
regularly on international issues. We want to engage Canadians
in dialogue even more in the future, and to do so in different
ways, including the use of new technologies. For example, we
have asked Canadians through a message on the Internet what they
think of Canada taking over the UN operation in Haiti. To date
we have received almost 100 responses -- 75% in favour I might
add!
Working together, as Canadians, we have made a real difference
-- for our country, and for the world.
This is not idle talk. In my meetings with foreign leaders and
ordinary citizens around the world, I have been struck by their
high regard for Canada. We often behave as if it is un-Canadian
to blow our own horn. But we need not worry; there are many people
around the world who are only too pleased to do so for us. Again
and again, citizens of other countries have saluted us as a beacon
of hope for a world where people of different creeds, races and
religions will increasingly come into contact with each other.
For people who doubt whether Canada stands for anything, whether
we are a real "nation", I invite them to do a little
travelling. Not just in this country, where our diversity and
civility are obvious, but to foreign countries as well. To the
United States and Western Europe as well as less fortunate countries.
If we had a better sense of how others see us, it would be the
strongest possible antidote to the naysayers.
Each of us, in our own way, is making a contribution. We know
that political stability, prosperity and security reinforce each
other. The more countries work together for common goals, the
more stable are the relations between them. The more private
citizens conduct transactions across borders, the greater is their
understanding and appreciation of each other. As we build new
partnerships, the world becomes a more integrated community of
nations. That is good for every single one of us.
There are grounds for real optimism. In Asia, Latin America,
the Middle East, and Africa there are countries taking bold steps
to change the habits of generations. There is greater openness
to new ways of doing things, greater incentives for initiative,
growing recognition that the cost of conflict is too great to
bear. It is the responsibility of all of us to support positive
change.
Canadians are ready. On our trade missions to Asia and Latin
America, I have been enormously impressed by the vigour and openness
of our business people. Working closely with the federal and
provincial governments, they have staked out new markets, and
brought home tens of thousands of new jobs to Canada. Canadian
companies that used to compete against each other now work together
to win contracts in the toughest markets in the world. Our exports
have reached historic levels, and the future is even brighter.
On the political side as well, we are looking to match the needs
of the international community with Canadian strengths.
That is why so many countries have asked for our assistance in
supporting their democratic institutions. Because we know how
to promote and defend a free media. We know how to run a police
force under civilian control. We have a judiciary that is notable
for its independence and professional conduct. We have an impressive
record of holding fair elections.
We have excellent peacekeepers, and not simply because they are
highly trained professionals. It is also because those Canadian
qualities of tolerance and respect for different points of view
are precisely the qualities the world needs most in its peacekeepers.
In Bosnia, thousands of Canadian soldiers and civilians brought
relief and a measure of security to the victims of that terrible
war. It was not traditional peacekeeping -- there was no peace
to keep. But those who are cynical about what we did achieve need
to be reminded of the thousands of people who relied on Canadians
to deliver the food and medicine that kept them alive.
Now, after Dayton, we are providing electoral and police training,
and help with reconstruction and development of a free media.
And the United Nations is now looking to Canada for leadership
in Haiti.
Again, Haiti is not traditional peacekeeping. What is required
is nothing less than the building of a civil society that works
for its people rather than against them. And Canadians can
and want to help in this process, just as they did in Lester Pearson's
day.
This is something that Canada does very well, a special vocation
that weaves its way through our foreign policy.
When Lester Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize, the world was marked
by high risk from nuclear war, but also by a high degree of stability
imposed by East-West competition. The Suez crisis threatened
to drag the great powers into a war that would engulf us all.
Mr. Pearson found a way out of that awful situation. But he
did not accomplish this task alone. He and Canada worked within
the United Nations system, in part because he always believed
the multilateral approach was always the best way for Canada.
We must continue to work hard within the multilateral system that
the Pearson generation built, to improve its capacity to meet
the problems of today. Canada is in the forefront of efforts to
ensure that the United Nations is prepared for the challenges
of the future. Last year's G-7 Summit in Halifax helped set out
an ambitious program of renewal. We are hard at work to see it
through.
There are many more countries than 40 years ago. Building consensus
for change is a lengthy and difficult process, even tougher than
it was in those earlier years.
But despite the frustrations, isolation is not an answer, and
never can be. Mr. Pearson condemned isolationism in the 1950s
for exactly the same reasons we condemn it today: Canada has important
international interests to defend. We cannot do that if we run
away and hide. We either stay engaged, or we allow others to determine
our future for us.
Just as Lester Pearson fought against isolationism fifty years
ago, we must speak out against the voices of isolation today --
abroad, and here at home too.
Mr. Pearson's generation learned the price of isolation through
the most terrible war the world has known. To those in Canada
today, on the right and left, whose rallying cry seems to be "stop
the world, we want to get off" -- I say, that might make
a good bumper sticker, but it makes lousy foreign policy, whether
it concerns human rights, trade, or our multilateral responsibilities.
If we have learned anything in the half-century since World War
II, it is not to repeat the tragic mistakes of the past.
That is the responsibility that falls to this generation of Canadians,
just as surely as it fell to the Pearson generation.
Acting together, using the leverage that a strong and united Canada
gives us, we can serve ourselves and serve the broader international
community that wants a committed and open Canada to stay in the
game.
Renewal is less dramatic than construction, but that does not
mean it is not important. Building foreign markets and creating
jobs at home takes time. Patience and perseverance are Canadian
virtues that we will not throw away at the first signs of difficulty.
Lester Pearson would have understood that very well. That is
where his pragmatism matched his passion.
Tonight, we honour not only his achievements, but the spirit that
made those achievements possible.
The spirit of Lester Pearson is still with us, and still guides
us. The principles he stood for are principles we continue to
stand for.
As Canadians.
As citizens of the greatest country in the world.
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