PUTIN IS SURELY TREMBLING OVER CANADA'S "CONVENING" POWER

   Rex Murphy:  When the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in lieu of any increased Canadian presence in the alarming crisis in Ukraine, makes a boast of Canada’s “convening power,” it is to wonder, perhaps even mandatory to ask, is Mélanie Joly serious? As bombs rain down, cities are pulverized, all canons of international behaviour outraged, we brag of a power to “convene?”

    Our “convening” power? Which, mildly paraphrased, comes down to our, Canada’s, gift at calling meetings! What is this country — a conference management firm?
    Is this what the dreamers of 1867 saw as our future? A dominion that when the world was in peril, and wars were brewing, nations under siege and invasion, the mighty provinces of the Canadian Confederation, under the taut umbrella of their woke national government, would hail the world …. “Hey, guys, Let’s have a meeting. The Convening Power has spoken.”