Stephen Harper’s Conservatives went a long way towards destroying Canada’s time-honoured approach to foreign policy and its stature in the world. For the government that replaces them, this presents a tremendous opportunity.

Harper’s disdain for Canadian diplomats, his contempt for multilateral institutions and the Obama administration, his boorish attitude towards Canada’s global academic and cultural links, his offhand treatment of Canada’s military — they all amount to a scorched-earth policy. His passion for trade deals (real or ephemeral) and his eagerness to befriend countries in proportion to the diaspora votes they represent can’t counterbalance the damage done.

So, whoever comes to power after next week’s election will be presented with a foreign policy file containing, if not a clean slate, at least a patch of waste ground ready for cultivation and planting.

The possibility that Harper may succeed himself after this election should not be taken too seriously. Even if he does retain power, the Big Beasts of the Conservative Party know that — in this day and age, and after 10 years at the helm of an industralized nation — any leader is going to be ready for retirement. After a decade cocooned in the hermitage of power with only the fawning company of those paid to sing his praises, any leader is liable to lose touch with the electorate’s mainstream, or go bonkers — or both. Even if Harper does return to 24 Sussex, the removal trucks will be lurking round the corner with the engines running.

No, the threat is that whoever comes to power next will try to pick up Canada’s approach to foreign affairs where the country left off a decade ago.

In this campaign, and over the last few years, we’ve heard a lot of whinging expressions of nostalgia for the good old days when Canada was the world’s Blue Helmet boy scout, ready to play Miss Congeniality wherever the world’s tribes of multi-lateralists gathered to hammer out their differences.

The danger now is that whoever takes over from Harper — irrespective of party — will simply try to recreate what was, even at its best, never the Golden Age of Canadian diplomacy rose-tinted hindsight might suggest.

As always, the world moves on. What might be called the North Atlantic Ascendancy — which, since 1945, has coddled Canada and allowed it to play on the international stage without taking full responsibility for either its nationhood or its actions — is coming to an end.

The first task of the new federal government will be to restore morale among Canadian diplomats, who have been treated like irritating children or subversive teenagers over the past 10 years. The first task of the new federal government will be to restore morale among Canadian diplomats, who have been treated like irritating children or subversive teenagers over the past 10 years.

It’s not that Europe and the U.S. are on the verge of collapse or will sink into oblivion. They aren’t and they won’t. But the North Atlantic culture, which has been the dominant scriptwriter of world affairs for 200 years and especially since 1945, is being challenged by the rising nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

In the not too distant future, the way global institutions function and the values they follow are going to be influenced as much by countries like China, India, Brazil and Kenya as they are by the U.S. and the European Union.

The future is already on view in bodies like China’s Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, whose standards of probity owe little to the examples of the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.

To survive and thrive in the turbulent waters ahead, a middle power like Canada is going to have to be a lot more nimble and engaged than we’ve had to be while swaddled in the warm embrace of Europe and the U.S. That means building new alliances with like-minded countries outside our traditional comfort zone of “old stock” cultural cousins.

There are plenty to choose from. Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Colombia, Chile, Ghana, Kenya and South Korea spring immediately to mind. But there are plenty more.

The first task of the new federal government will be to restore morale among Canadian diplomats, who have been treated like irritating children or subversive teenagers over the past 10 years. Every Canadian diplomat one talks to has his or her own horror story. What all these tales inevitably boil down to is an extraordinary level of aggressive mistrust and vindictiveness aimed by the Prime Minister’s Office at Canada’s army of representatives abroad.

The second thing the new government is going to have to do is turn up for international events. A remarkable feature of Harper’s foreign policy has been his habit of snubbing multilateral venues like the United Nations, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the Arctic Council and others — whenever he found something to offend his ideology.

Now, there’s absolutely no question that the UN, the Commonwealth, la Francophonie and, indeed, all international institutions are in need of reform. But you can’t make change happen if you don’t show up.

The one area of foreign policy where the Harper government has put its shoulder to the wheel is its push for trade agreements. There have been important deals with Europe and Latin America, though initiatives have been far less successful in Asia — arguably the most important arena for Canada’s trading future. (The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership should be discounted at this point. It is far from clear that it’s a good thing for Canada and — more importantly — many Washington commentators are saying it has no hope of being ratified by the U.S. Congress. Without U.S. ratification, the whole deal is dead in the water.)

What the Harper government has failed to appreciate, however, is that trade does not function in a vacuum. Successful trade relationships depend on a spectrum of connections with the partner nations. These include close diplomatic ties and joint objectives, cultural and academic exchanges, and military and security alliances.

The new government is going to have to re-energize those necessary companion elements of Canada’s foreign relations if it intends to revive this country’s role on the world stage. Investment in the military — especially the construction of a serious, modern blue-water navy — is critical.

But come what may on October 19, October 20 will be a bright new day of opportunity for Canadian foreign policy.

Jonathan Manthorpe is the author of “Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan,” published by Palgrave-Macmillan. He has been a foreign correspondent and international affairs columnist for nearly 40 years. He was European bureau chief for the Toronto Star and then Southam News in the late 1970s and the 1980s. In 1989 he was appointed Africa correspondent by Southam News and in 1993 was posted to Hong Kong to cover Asia. For the last few years he has been based in Vancouver, writing international affairs columns for what is now the Postmedia Group. He left the group last year and now writes for a range of newspapers and websites. [email protected]

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