Talk Is Cheap
"You will find in our foreign policy the traditional Canadian elements of generosity, compassion and sacrifice. But I want to revitalize this tradition to suit an increasingly complex world."
-- Paul Martin, May 10, 2004 Montreal, Quebec
Now, not to be cheeky, but nowhere in my Canadian Oxford English Dictionary could I find a definition for "revitalize" that said "to create an environment of dithering and deferential lethargy; to let others take the lead; to follow reluctantly."
Honest, I looked; couldn't find it.
So you will have to forgive my confusion regarding just what this new vanguard of Canadian world leadership actually means when our initial response to the deadliest tsunami in 200 years resembled not so much a white knight riding onto the scene to save the maiden fair but a reluctant school boy being dragged to Sunday school. The Canadian government, if you will remember, initially offered not $4 million, but $1 million, when anybody with half a brain and passing knowledge of hydraulics could see for their own eyes that this was not a case of flooded basements and waterlogged tennis courts.
Looking like a man who wished he'd gone on vacation like his colleagues, Defense Minister Bill Graham announced an additional $3 million the next day, and then joined in an international game of poker with his ministerial counterparts as each country inched its way up in foreign aid commitment in a series of tentative wagers that would have had them laughed out of any self-respecting Las Vegas gaming room.
The opportunity for us to take the lead was already lost.
By the second day the need was obvious, the scope of the tragedy was clear, and the chance to step up and donate in the order of hundreds of millions was there for the taking. Instead of sheepishly comparing ourselves to our neighbours and letting them set the standard for aid, we would have made them look like a bunch of penny-pinching schmucks while seriously raising the foreign aid bar and adding some much needed teeth to Paul Martin's vision for Canada to lead the way.
Instead, we spent the first week not only looking like penny-pinching schmucks ourselves, but demonstrating that the Department of National Defense is run by a collection of disingenuous, stuttering fools going to great lengths to explain that our DART, or Disaster Assistance Response Team of 200 personnel that offers medical care, water treatment, and engineering and security support was not needed in the "theatre."
The "theatre" in this case being areas with tens of thousands of dead, far more injured, no clean water, and millions facing disease and famine as a result of...wait for it...a disaster.
Now let's follow this if we can: a response team specifically designed to respond to a crisis involving injury, poor water, and devastation is not needed when there are cases of widespread injury, poor water and devastation...damn good thing we have this thing, eh?
Oh, they're finally leaving, by the way; on Thursday, a week and a half after the first wave struck. That, my friends, is not what I call quick, timely response.
But one thing you can be sure of is that your government was racking up more cell phone minutes than an east-end drug dealer during a smack sale. These people were working the phones, having meetings, playing with their BlackBerrys, perhaps even tapping out a memo or two. Whenever government officials were cornered and criticized for not doing anything, they'd point to their over-stuffed organizers, as if a Palm Pilot would somehow raise the dead of Southeast Asia.
Much has been made of Paul Martin, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew, and International Co-operation Minister Aileen Carroll not calling off their vacations and returning to Ottawa. Their response is that they were working the phones too; always in touch, always working.
Really? Then why did nothing substantial happen until they got back? Why did Paul Martin and his cabinet not only drop the ball, but refuse to even try to catch it until after they caught a quick tan and a dip in the pool? Why didn't this country lead when it had the chance? My God, why couldn't Martin at least change his damn New Year's greeting to reflect the previous week instead of babbling about fresh sheets of ice and peace and contentment?
Because talk is cheap, that's why, and it's all Paul Martin ever seems able to afford.
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