Canada spins into international irrelevance

Only a few months ago Prime Minister Harper announced Canada would be playing a larger role in the world. Judging by a number of articles on the front page of The Globe this morning, the international community hasn't taken its cue.

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference opening in Hanoi this week, the PM had planned on a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, seeking, one imagines, to patch up our fraying relationship with Asia's emerging economic giant. At the last moment, the Chinese announced they weren't interested. This sort of snub does little for either our credibility or our prospects in the fastest growing economic arena in the world.

The French Prime minister, meanwhile, is calling for the European Union to impose punitive import taxes on goods from countries that don't sign on to the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol. There is little doubt we are one of the malingerers he has in mind. If we ever had any influence on this critically important issue, we've lost it.

Yet another article discussed Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor kicking off "a cross-country public-relations blitz" to sell the Afghan war. This is our government's major international effort and it isn't going well either. Quite aside from lagging support for the mission at home, other NATO countries are showing little interest in providing the number of troops we insist are necessary for success -- a quid pro quo, perhaps, for our anemic efforts on global warming.

Economics, the environment, "peace-keeping" -- our role on the world stage seems to be rapidly turning into a bit part.