Sixty Joyless De-Britished Uncrowned Commonpoor Years (1949-2009)

Elizabeth II Vice-Regal Saint: Remembering Paul Comtois (1895–1966), Lt.-Governor of Québec
Britannic Inheritance: Britain's proud legacy. What legacy will America leave?
English Debate: Daniel Hannan revels in making mince meat of Gordon Brown
Crazy Canucks: British MP banned from Canada on national security grounds
Happy St. Patrick's: Will Ireland ever return to the Commonwealth?
Voyage Through the Commonwealth: World cruise around the faded bits of pink.
No Queen for the Green: The Green Party of Canada votes to dispense with monarchy.
"Sir Edward Kennedy": The Queen has awarded the senator an honorary Knighthood.
President Obama: Hates Britain, but is keen to meet the Queen?
The Princess Royal: Princess Anne "outstanding" in Australia.
H.M.S. Victory: In 1744, 1000 sailors went down with a cargo of gold.
Queen's Commonwealth: Britain is letting the Commonwealth die.
Justice Kirby: His support for monarchy almost lost him appointment to High Court
Royal Military Academy: Sandhurst abolishes the Apostles' Creed.
Air Marshal Alec Maisner, R.I.P. Half Polish, half German and 100% British.
Cherie Blair: Not a vain, self regarding, shallow thinking viper after all.
Harry Potter: Celebrated rich kid thinks the Royals should not be celebrated
The Royal Jelly: A new king has been coronated, and his subjects are in a merry mood
Victoria Cross: Australian TROOPER MARK DONALDSON awarded the VC
Godless Buses: Royal Navy veteran, Ron Heather, refuses to drive his bus
Labour's Class War: To expunge those with the slightest pretensions to gentility
100 Top English Novels of All Time: The Essential Fictional Library
BIG BEN: Celebrating 150 Years of the Clock Tower

Monday 12 March 2007

Harper's "very British-centric approach to the world"

From Doug Saunders in the weekend Globe and Mail: Canada's "London mission is something akin to a ministry".

"Our Prime Minister has a very British-centric approach to the world," Mr. Kirton says. "He's from a Loyalist family; he's a long-term admirer of their system; a loyal Economist reader; his role model was Margaret Thatcher; and he says 'God save the Queen' in speeches.

"In Stephen Harper's map of the world, London is at the conceptual centre. So putting Wright there is not putting him at some Ye Olde Prestige post."

Oddly, all sides agree, the Canadian right is slowly accomplishing what the Canadian left long argued for -- a move away from an exclusive focus on the U.S. and toward a closer engagement with Europe.

Of course, it's on the Conservatives' terms, with an aggressive military posture in Afghanistan, an Israel-centred policy in the Middle East, and so on. But even opponents in the diplomatic corps speak favourably of the transatlantic shift: Bridges are being built, people say, and some day they can carry different traffic.

"Europe has changed since I was here last," says Mr. Wright, who was a low-visibility second-in-command here in the early 1990s. "NATO is bigger. The European Union is bigger. But Britain and Canada -- we are both transatlanticists now. . . . It is a relationship that has become much more important and more demanding."

Hat tip to commenter Splendor Sine Occasu

10 comments:

Tweedsmuir said...

This is quite remarkable. Europe and Nato run through London and not Brussels. The various Canadian missions across the capitals of Europe now take their marching orders from the London hub. A generational shift indeed.

The Monarchist said...

Now if only Britain would run their affairs through London instead of Brussels...

mrcawp said...

This is sodding brilliant news!

God bless the Anglosphere! Safe in the hands of Harper and Howard!

If only Blair, Brown or Cameron were their equals.

Roy Eappen said...

A great post to honour Commonwealth Day. We honour our links to Britain and to OUr Mother Prince and Friend.
God Save the Queen
God Bless HM PM Harper

Anonymous said...

Looks like Dief the Chief is back!

Anonymous said...

In other words, PMSH is being Canadian.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the hat tip, Lord Beaverbrook. I thought that you would like that.

Now, my question is, how much play will this find in the Kanukistani main stream media? This doesn't quite fit with their mythology that PM Harper wants to turn our Dominion into the 51st state, now does it?

The Monarchist said...

Tweedsmuir picked it up, though had he not, I would have.

Aeneas the Younger said...

Gents:

I will withhold judgement here, BUT if Harper turns out to be a transatlanticist, then I just may be able to vote for the CPC one day.

Until then, his speeches/statements to American "conservative" groups and the existence of people like Anders and Jaffer give me cause for worry. I probably despise Rob Anders more than any NDP MP I could possibly imagine. And THAT is saying something ...

The Monarchist said...

Shaftesbury, every party has people that give us cause for concern, as invariably any party would. It's just that the Liberals have more of them.