Demographic changes fuel our foreign policy

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Feb 24, 2008 04:30 AM
Haroon Siddiqui

On Friday, I hosted the CBC Radio program The Current, which is
quarterbacked Monday to Thursday by Anna Maria Tremonti.

The most interesting discussion turned out to be on a topic long
explored in this space: how our changing demography changes the
national narrative and public policy.

One in five Canadians, and half of Torontonians, were born outside
Canada. They are the most-educated immigrants in our history, according
to Statistics Canada. Attuned to Canadian and world affairs, they want
and deserve a say in both domestic and foreign policies.

Most diaspora communities keep close contacts with their homelands.
They always have, starting with the English and the French.

But the more-established communities have historically tended to
delegitimize the "diaspora politics" of the newer ones. This, however,
is changing with the greater "internationalization" of Canada.

Canada is host to people from both sides of almost every conflict in
the world. Also, Canadians in general are taking greater interest in
global affairs ` a function of the communications revolution and ease
of travel. Or of the possible direct impact on Canada of geopolitics.
Hence, the strong views on Iraq and Afghanistan.

Opposition to the 2003 Iraq war began with Canadian Arabs and with
South Asians and others, whose sensibility to American hegemony and
wars is not unlike that of Quebecers.

At the end of the Cold War, Canadian Ukrainians, Lithuanians,
Slovenians, Croatians, Bosnians and Macedonians celebrated the birth of
new states in their homelands. Serb Canadians and Greek Canadians did
not.

Canadian Armenians have won greater acknowledgment of the Armenian
genocide in Turkey. Canadian Tamils successfully lobbied federal
politicians, especially Liberals, until the Tamil Tigers were declared
a terrorist entity.

Different segments of Chinese Canadians have spoken out about Tibet or
the Falun Gong or for greater economic ties with China. Indo Canadians
have helped improve our economic, academic and political relations with
India.

Jewish Canadians have always been concerned about anti-Semitism and
Israel. Bernie Farber of the Canadian Jewish Congress notes that after
years of lobbying, the community has been successful with the Stephen
Harper government on prosecuting "Nazi enablers" who have long lived in
Canada.

Last week, Canadian Kosovars and Albanians held a joyful rally at
Queen’s Park to mark the unilateral declaration of independence by
Kosovo. They called on Ottawa to recognize the new state. Serb
Canadians have a different view.

The greater demands of different communities prompt some to say that
"ethnics" had better keep "old country" troubles out of Canada. That’s
not realistic. We see second- and third-generation Canadians taking a
keen interest in ancestral nations. And newer diaspora communities are
even more connected to where they came from.

Their input into foreign policy is perfectly legitimate, so long as it
is done peacefully and within rules. Those who don’t, make little or no
headway or run afoul of the law.

Some feel that Ottawa listens only to powerful groups with strong
lobbies. It should not be so but is. Democracy belongs to those who
actively participate in it. However, the Canadian polity is far more
amenable to change than others.

Foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy, a reflection of our
collective values and, above all, our strategic and economic interests.

How this balance is, or should be, achieved is debated in a new book,
The World in Canada: Diaspora, Demography and Domestic Politics
(McGill-Queen’s University Press), a collection of essays by experts.

Our demographic transformation is more and more of a factor, note
co-editors David Bercuson of the University of Calgary and David
Carment of Carleton University.

"Canadian foreign policy cannot be considered viable if it contradicts
the preferences of ordinary Canadians."

A government may pay a political price for letting a democratic deficit
develop on foreign policy. Which is what partially explains the
inability of the Harper Tories to make inroads into urban Canada.

Haroon Siddiqui appears Thursday and Sunday. hsiddiqui@thestar.ca.