Latin America visit by Harper to focus on foreign policy

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Globe and Mail

Latin America visit by Harper to focus on foreign policy
ALAN FREEMAN

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

July 12, 2007 at 3:19 AM EDT

OTTAWA — It's an exploratory trip to what might be called "Mister Harper's new neighbourhood."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper leaves Sunday on an ambitious six-day visit to Latin America and the Caribbean, where he is expected to spell out his government's new foreign policy focus on the Americas.
(snip)

That neighbourhood is increasingly dominated politically by left-leaning governments that are less than enamoured with traditional U.S. economic dominance of the region. That creates an opening for Canada to play a more important role, said Michael Shifter, policy vice-president at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank, who recently visited Ottawa.

"What Canada can offer is that it's close to the United States but is not the United States," he said. "The United States has so much baggage in Latin America, but Canada escapes that. This is a hemisphere where there is a lot of mistrust and a lot of disarray, and the U.S. is very handicapped to do anything about it."


Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070712.wxlatin12/BNStory/National/home

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Stephen Harper is the 3rd clown in this photo
we have seen for ages. Good lord.