Smith: What issue should John Baird prioritize?
Executive Director of the Centre for Global Studies and CIGI Distinguished Fellow
- Smith: Are criticisms of the preliminary nuclear accord with Iran prescient or paranoid?
- Smith: Should the Canadian government spy on economic targets abroad and share that intelligence with Canadian corporations?
- Smith: Do extreme weather phenomena like Hurricane Sandy help or hinder a productive conversation about climate change?
It would make sense to start with the two wars Canada is now in. We are on our way out of Kandahar militarily, but it is not at all clear that we will be able to keep our development activities going because of lack of security. Yet we have invested heavily, above all in lives lost. What now? In Libya, what do we expect/want to see happen? Assuming the country does not descend into endless civil war, are we prepared to commit to development? One can argue that those who helped “break” physically the country have some obligation to reconstruct. Answers would be a start. Then there is the matter of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations where Canada’s position has taken a strange turn. Clarity would be a start.
