Foreign ministers' meeting in Gatineau G8 springboard.
Topics discussed at this week’s foreign ministers’ meeting in Gatineau, Quebec, will serve as a springboard for G8 discussions, says Parry Sound-Muskoka’s member of Parliament.
“This is like a feeder system,” said Tony Clement of the March 29-30 meeting. “They come up with their communiques and their resolutions (and those are) set into the process for the leaders to consider in Muskoka.”
Foreign affairs ministers from around the world, including United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are attending the meeting, which is hosted by Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon at an exclusive hotel near the Ontario-Quebec border.
Topics such as nuclear non-proliferation; insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and increasing the ability to address security vulnerabilities are all on the agenda.
Clement said, “the G8 is still the lead summit for international security issues.”
The G8 agenda includes long-standing themes of the summit: peace and security, climate change; development and economic growth.
In recent months, the prime minister had been rolling out G8 discussion priorities.
One came in February when Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that improving maternal and child health is a G8 discussion priority.
That came into the spotlight again this week with a motion from Liberal MP Bob Rae. His motion called for that initiative to include “the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, including contraception.”
The motion, which didn’t specifically mention abortion, though that was the understood context in the house, was defeated 144-138.
Parry Sound-Muskoka federal Liberal candidate Shawn Pudsey’s response to the defeat was only this: “The Conservatives chose to make the health of mothers and children the lead agenda item for the G8. They must have thought that bringing a baby into the world is all sunshine and strawberries. For most women, the situation is more complicated, and for some, it is fatal,” he wrote in an email last week. “Mr. Clement brought us the G8 and all the good and bad that comes with it.
“Lives are on the line in our country and abroad. He needs to stop smirking about his slick political tactics and show leadership on a complicated issue. If not, Mr. Clement will have invited a storm into this riding and into this country.”
Clement maintains the Liberal motion was simply a failed means to divide the Conservative Party and politicize the issue.
“Canadians don’t want to reopen that whole debate (on abortion),” he said.
“There are plenty of things we can do around the world that have to do with mothers giving birth and the early stages of children’s lives, which is where people are at risk around the world. That’s what this is all about.”
A meeting of international development ministers is taking place in Halifax before the G8. Last month, finance ministers visited Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut.