Harper to change tack by addressing the UN General Assembly
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has tended to skip the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, has decided to attend the high-profile event later this month and deliver a speech to the UN General Assembly.
The address will come at an uncertain time in world affairs: the rise of Islamic State; Russian aggression in Ukraine; and continued tension in Israel and Gaza.
It will also break a pattern in recent years that saw Harper shun the General Assembly and instead travel to New York at the same time as its meeting to appear at other events.
The prime minister, whose government has been publicly critical of the UN and its agencies, has delivered two addresses to the General Assembly in the past eight years.
On Wednesday, Harper’s spokesman, Jason MacDonald, announced that the prime minister will travel to New York City later this month for a series of meetings connected to the UN. MacDonald said Harper will also address the General Assembly in its annual gathering that draws world leaders and international media.
Also that week in New York, on Sept. 25, Harper will participate in a UN-sponsored event on maternal and child health to be hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Harper spoke by phone Wednesday with the secretary-general. For several years, Harper has been a proponent of international measures to improve the health of women and children in developing countries.
The UN will also hold a climate summit in New York in the same week to discuss key environmental issues pertaining to global warming.
Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq will represent Canada at that summit, but Harper will take part in a related dinner with the secretary-general “to discuss climate issues,” said MacDonald.
However, the highlight of his trip to New York will likely be his speech to the General Assembly.
He has only done this twice before, in 2006 and 2010, meaning that while many other nations sent their leaders to speak to the international forum, Canada has usually sent its foreign minister.
As the conflict in Gaza dominated the headlines this summer, his government steadfastly stood by Israel and even blasted the UN high commissioner for human rights for her “uncalled-for criticism” of Israel’s military response to rocket attacks from Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Moreover, with an election set for 2015, Conservative strategists also want voters to consider the contrast between Harper and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.
The Conservative government hasn’t been shy about criticizing the UN, nor has Harper felt obliged to speak at the annual General Assembly gathering.
In 2012, he bypassed the General Assembly and went to a hotel ballroom a few blocks away to receive a “world statesman” award from a coalition of business and religious leaders.