Conference: Canada´s foreing policy

This conference was run up as a workshop, giving answers to those questions about the foreing policy in Canada.

One topic to discuss was the challenges that Canada faces since 9/11. it is clear that Canada has such a strong relationship with United States. Due to the fact that United States was the precursor of the Irak´s war, Canada has got to positions about it. The first one was the alliance in the Afghanistan conflict which was mostly militar but in the irak case, Canada played and continues with its peacekeeper role. There are no canadian army in irak´s territory. Canada just train police officers and give assistance in social development.

The new policy that has been adopted by the canadian government is one opposited to the conflict, nowadays United Sates cannot rely on Canada as a military ally, so the american disagreement about that is evident. The policy is focus more on social development rather military operation.

As tates the primer minister: The Canada´s future points out to be a peacekeeper nation and to reduce its presence in war over the time but in a military sense. That is why United Kingdom took advantage of that and has become closer to United States.

Moreover, in order to reduce the tension among United States and Canada, The canadian government has sent an embassador to Washington to develop other kind of relationship with U.S. For Canada, is it important to "make U.S happy" in security and economic prosperity, that is why is important to maintain the relationships with the biggest economy in the world.

Other topic discussed was the Canada´s National Identity. "We are not Americans" Canadian states. Cnadians do not deny the improtance of united states for their economy, we are talking about 1 billion dollars per day in trade with U.S, both countries have developed a interdependence in market, they are each other as a "economic engine". In addition, there are several aspects that determine the continued change that Canada is experiencing about culture. One of them is the demographic issue, due to the slow population growth in Canada, immigratrion has become more and more evident. Although this fact might affect the stability of canadian culture, it is said that young qualified people are needed in many areas in order to develop economically, sociably and so on. Multiculturalism has taken place in Canada, people from around the world have found Canada as a good place to grow, to live and work. At this point, one appreciation came up during the workshop session: It is important to recognize that Canada is one of the countries who implements more barriers to get into the territory, using difficult procedures as the Canadian Visa.

It is important to differentiate immigrants from refugees, most of the refugees are qualified people, and the immigrants not always accomplish with the qualification´s standarts of Canada. But at the same time, once qualified people get into Canada, another phenomen occurs: The brain Drain. Most of the people go to united states to get better salaries. So, one domestic policy ios to develop programs in order to keep qualified people in Canada. Those programs consist on the creation of regulatory bodies in several areas but especially in medical and law areas.

Environmentally talking, Canada is strong added to the kyoto´s protocol, and has been developing environmental programs by investing in the use of renewal resources. Moreover, Canada is inthe struggle against the babyseals extermination, Canada prevents the illegal commerce born from this issue such as fur and meat trade.

Finally, as Colombians we were interested in knowing the Canada´s interest in latinamerican economies. Canada is more engaged to Asian and European economies, but also Cnada has signed several treaties with latinamerican countries such as Chile, peru, Brazil and "in process" with Colombia.