Vice-Regal Saint: 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
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10 comments:
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.
Now if only Britain would run their affairs through London instead of Brussels...
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.
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
Looks like Dief the Chief is back!
In other words, PMSH is being Canadian.
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?
Tweedsmuir picked it up, though had he not, I would have.
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 ...
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.
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