Nossal argues that although Canada may seem to have an influence in the international community, its activity in international affairs has been declining for years. The principle reason for this, argues Nossal, is the slow deterioration of Canadian-American relations.
To introduce his argument, Nossal first explains that concern about Canada's influence in world politics is not a new issue. He cites Arthur Andrew to back up this statement and then continues with his argument. Nossal then jumps right into the issue of Canadian-American relations. He begins this discussion with the fact that Canada was not mentioned when President George W. Bush made a speech and thanked a number of friends and allies for helping the United States after September 11. He goes on to explain that this was not because Canada had not helped and may have only been a mistake. This claim is only a supposition and is not very persuasive at this point, but it does suggest a distance between the two countries.
Romania, Germany, Canada, Hungary
English: At the UN, Colin Powell holds a model via...
English: Official photograph portrait of former U....Nossal goes on to further explore this issue later on in the article. Another argument that Nossal uses to back up his claim is that Canada's foreign policy is simply ignored around the globe. He cites many sources for this argument that support it. Though Nossal has not put forward any of quantitative data, based on the opinions of a number of writers and some logical argumentation proposed by a few of them, his line of reasoning seems to be valid.
Next, Nossal goes into how Canada dealt with the months before the attack on Iraq in 2003. He suggests that the government was too vague about its intentions, to engage or not to engage in war. He provides solid proof to support the theory that the Prime Minister avoided the issue because...