Rex Murphy: Putin is surely trembling over Canada's 'convening' power

DennisTate · Mar 19, 2022

Rex Murphy does a good job of making fun of how anemic and weak Canada has became when an ally is attacked.

I agree that my nation Canada has not lived up to our NATO obligations or to our veterans.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-putin-is-surely-trembling-over-canadas-convening-power

Rex Murphy: Putin is surely trembling over Canada's 'convening' power

When the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in lieu of any increased Canadian presence in the alarming crisis in Ukraine, makes a boast of Canada’s “convening power,” it is to wonder, perhaps even mandatory to ask, is Mélanie Joly serious? As bombs rain down, cities are pulverized, all canons of international behaviour outraged, we brag of a power to “convene?”

Our “convening” power? Which, mildly paraphrased, comes down to our, Canada’s, gift at calling meetings! What is this country — a conference management firm?

Is this what the dreamers of 1867 saw as our future? A dominion that when the world was in peril, and wars were brewing, nations under siege and invasion, the mighty provinces of the Canadian Confederation, under the taut umbrella of their woke national government, would hail the world …. “Hey, guys, Let’s have a meeting. The Convening Power has spoken.”

Lest you should think, dear reader, that this is an isolated fancy in the isolated brain of a minister of this nation’s foreign affairs, allow me to correct you.

In what I must regard as a strange article in a magazine called Policy Options, a full four years ago, there was voiced an equal hosanna to this eldritch power. I have no idea where this weird concept originated, or how anyone would want to associate their name with asserting it, but here was Policy Options spreading the confetti:

“Canada today arguably has unsurpassed convening power, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can harness this power during Canada’s G7 presidency in 2018 to elevate global conversations and progress on the global skills agenda, clean innovation and women’s economic empowerment.”
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I think that many women in the Ukraine would love to be given good rifles and other weapons at this time.

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Rex Murphy: Putin is surely trembling over Canada's 'convening' power

DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

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Rex Murphy: Putin is surely trembling over Canada's 'convening' power

DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

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