Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | C | Canadian Speeches

Partners in prosperity; Canada and the Asia-Pacific.

Article Excerpt
Canada is urged to tap into the economic potential of the Asia-Pacific. Through the media, education, trade, and investment, the partnership between Canada and the Asia-Pacific can flourish and create prosperity for both partners. International security concerning terrorism needs to be addressed, as well as the further promotion of democracy and the Canadian values of human rights. Speech to the 2002 Asia-Pacific Summit, Vancouver, November 14, 2002.

If we shrink the earth's population down to a village of 100 persons but keep all existing human ratios the same, there would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 people from the Western Hemisphere (North and South America), and 8 Africans.

In 1960, Asia's share of the world's gross national product was 4%, today it's over 30%!

Like you, I'm proud that reportedly more than 45 of our sitting members of parliament were born outside Canada. Consider the case of Gurmant Grewal, MP from Surrey Central, my Official Opposition critic for Asia-Pacific. Is it not a real tribute to both Canadians generally and Gurmant himself that he could be elected in what is now the largest constituency by population in our country only five years after he became a landed immigrant in BC's Lower Mainland? Last week, we traveled together to Hong Kong and South Korea where it brought me enormous pride to relate this to many persons we met. It was lost on virtually no one we met that there are few other countries in the world that can offer such opportunities to its citizens, and which in turn benefits so greatly from the world within its own borders.

Global village

It is appropriate that "the global village" metaphor was coined by a Canadian, Marshall McLuhan. I like to think that we are the Phoenicians of the 21st century: one in three jobs and about 45% of our economy already depend on trade.

Our increasing dependence on trade probably led to this year's theme: "Asia-Pacific Community and North American Integration: Competing Visions?" Like many of you, I am opposed to the notion that our global relationships need to be viewed as "either/or" equations. To assume trade is a zero sum game is to take a very narrow view of our role as an honest broker in the world, which so many non-Canadians here spoke about yesterday. There's no doubt that the United States represents our single most important relationship. No serious Canadian needs to defend the proposition...