Trudeau taps Clark as special envoy
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed former prime minister Joe Clark as his special envoy to persuade foreign governments to support Canada’s bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
From March 2-9, Clark will travel to Algeria, Bahrain, Qatar and Egypt in order to seek votes and “continue to strengthen bilateral relationships between Canada and the four countries,” reads a press release by Global Affairs Canada.
In September 2019, Clark, along with former prime minister Jean Chrétien, represented Canada at the United Nations General Assembly after the Trudeau government chose to pass on the event due to the October election.
Clark, 80, served as the 16th prime minister of Canada between 1979 and 1980. He gained leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976 and ousted then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau in the 1979 election, effectively ending 16 years of Liberal rule over Canada.
However, having won with a minority government, Clark’s tenure was brief and his party was defeated in the 1980 election. Clark lost the leadership of the Tories in 1983 and since then worked as a senior cabinet minister in Brian Mulroney’s cabinet, a university professor and president of his own consulting firm.
The announcement comes on the heels of a long-awaited draft settlement between the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and the government over a natural gas pipeline in British Columbia at the centre of nationwide protests that have halted rail and road traffic in many parts of the country over the last month.
Trudeau, who had been campaigning for votes in Africa, was forced to return to Canada after being criticized for being out of the country at the time of the protests. Since then, the prime minister has remained in Canada and in talks with Indigenous chiefs and federal officials to bring an end to the blockades.
Canada last sat on the Security Council in 2000, with Stephen Harper’s Conservative government having lost a bid for a seat in 2010. Along with Norway and Ireland, it is vying for two seats available to Western European countries as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. Members of the UN will vote in June, with the winners sitting for two-year terms.
Trudeau has said he is seeking a seat for Canada on the powerful UN Security Council because it is where the world’s most pressing issues are debated.