OTTAWA—Foreign aid and the future role of the Canadian Forces will form the backbone of the country’s bid for a seat on the Security Council, says Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Marc-Andre Blanchard tells The Canadian Press that’s part of the reason why the government has embarked on major reviews in two key areas of foreign policy: international development and national defence.

Blanchard says it is still early days in what will be a four-year campaign for the 2020 vote, a bid to secure a two-year term on the UN’s most powerful body that would begin the following year.

Still, he says, the groundwork is currently being laid, by both the internal policy reviews, and the early interactions of diplomats on ground.

Blanchard says he’s had more than 50 bilateral meetings with fellow ambassadors at the UN since taking up the post earlier this year, and for now he’s in a listening mode to get feedback about Canada.

He says the country faces a tough fight against two like-minded countries and allies — Norway and Ireland — when 2020 rolls around, so work is underway to carve out a platform that can highlight Canada’s comparative advantage.

“We are in the phase of engaging with member states, asking for support, but also listening to them about their views on Canada,” Blanchard said in an interview.

“We think it’s important that before we come out with our own platform that we listen to countries, to be responsive.”

In 2010, Canada lost to tiny Portugal in Security Council voting in what was then widely seen as a repudiation of the then-Conservative government’s foreign policy, which had tilted towards Israel in the Middle East and was perceived as being indifferent to Africa.

The current development review, to be tabled in the fall, will lay out a five-year spending plan that is expected to show how Canada would try to meet the UN target for development spending — 0.7 per cent of gross national income — that it has never reached, and that only five countries have.

The defence review will also be looking at how to implement a campaign promise to return Canada to its UN peacekeeping roots after more than a decade of war-fighting in Afghanistan.

The UN’s new 2030 sustainable development goals call for all countries to reach the 0.7 per cent target, while many, including U.S. President Barack Obama, have called for a renewed focus on UN peacekeeping.

The government is currently grappling with the reality that the days of blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers standing between two belligerent parties are long gone, replaced by a much messier combination of conflict prevention, and the insertion of peacekeepers into harm in increasingly unstable conflicts.

“The defence policy review and the development policy review, they’re obviously going to be at the core” of the UN campaign, said Blanchard.

The envoy noted Canada is in the toughest of the UN’s regional groups — the Western European and Others group — for Security Council elections. He said Canada won’t focus on campaigning against Norway and Ireland, but will also highlight something that goes beyond foreign aid and peacekeeping contributions.

“Our experience with peaceful pluralism is an experience that is relevant to the challenges we’re facing with migration at the moment,” he explained.

Blanchard referred to the backlash and intolerance that has reared its head as refugees from Syria and elsewhere flood Western countries in what has become the worst migration crisis since the Second World War.

“The rise of xenophobia, the rise of division, the rise of mistrust — we think that the Canadian experience is very valuable to bring a very positive, inclusive solution to these challenges.”

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The envoy also revealed that some of his UN counterparts don’t always see eye-to-eye on Canada’s message of inclusion and human rights for all, leading to some candid exchanges behind closed doors.

“In some cases they’ve told me, ‘Ambassador Blanchard, Canada is a beacon of human rights, Canada says things that very few other countries in the world say, and this role is essential,’” he said.

“’Although our country disagrees with you, these things need to be said.’”

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