Hillary Clinton Embarrasses Tories

By: Jamie Phillips

GATINEAU, QC  – Hillary Clinton left Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon alone at the podium on Tuesday. Cannon gave the closing news conference for the Arctic Summit Meeting solo after Clinton left the meeting early, citing that important parties had erroneously been left out of the meeting: Inuit groups, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

The meeting did include foreign ministers from Russia, Norway and Denmark, in addition to Cannon and Clinton. The five countries are aiming to co-operate over untapped Arctic resources; all are contributing to military build up in the region. As much as 25% of the world’s untapped oil and gas resources lay under Arctic ice. Canada has long claimed sovereignty over the North Passage, however, Russia and the U.S. do not share this opinion. Despite Clinton’s early departure, she said that the meeting had been “excellent” and that there is “so much we can do together”.

Clinton’s two days in Canada gave Harper’s government a few things to think about. Not only did she publicly call out Cannon for the inappropriate exclusion of Aboriginal groups and other countries with vested interest in the Arctic circle, she ruffled feathers over Afghanistan and abortion.

Conservatives have been the brunt of much criticism for its refusal to fund family planning programs that include abortion. Purportedly pro-choice Liberals have been spineless and avoid using the word “abortion”. Clinton, however, does not lack in the backbone department.

“You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion,” she said.

“I do not think governments should be involved in making these decisions. It is perfectly legitimate for people to hold their own personal views based on conscience, religion or any other basis. But I’ve always believed the government should not intervene in decisions of such intimacy.”

As if that weren’t enough to irk Mr. Harper, she also publicly opposed Canada’s projected 2011 withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that the U.S. would prefer it if Canadian troops extended their stay.

And thus concluded Hillary Clinton’s Canadian shake-down.

Posted by jamiephillips on March 30, 2010. Filed under International News,International Politics,Politics,WorldNewsVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.