Too little, too late?
This week members of the United Nations General Assembly voted to fill non-permanent seats on the U. N. Security Council (UNSC) for the committee’s 2021-2022 term. The UNSC is the U. N.’s most powerful board. Canada has not held a seat on the UNSC since 2000.
The seats are allocated by geographic region. India, for example, ran unopposed and won a seat, and the same is true for Mexico. In Canada’s geographical region, Ireland and Norway were also competing. Ireland and Norway were successful in their bids for a seat.
The Security Council has 10 non-permanent seats, each serving a term of two years. The five permanent, the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom have the power to exercise a veto on any resolution. In order to win a seat, countries must claim two-thirds of the votes from the U. N. General Assembly. Competition is stiff. Ireland and Norway, for example, have been campaigning for a seat much longer than Canada, which didn’t enter the competition until 2016, just four years ago. Ireland has been at it since 2005 and Norway since 2007.
Winning two-thirds of the votes meant that Canada needed to win 128 votes. Canada won 108 countries of a total 192 that voted Wednesday afternoon at UN Headquarters in New York. Norway received 130 and Ireland received 128. Critics blame Trudeau’s late entry into the competition as a reason for the loss. And, the timing was probably wrong, too.
“The prime minister will be forced to wear that loss personally,” said Adam Chapnick, the author of a book about Canada’s history on the Security Council and a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada.
While it’s important for Canada to have regular representation on the council, Chapnick said, the political calculation to run this cycle “was a very bad one,” given the truncated campaign time and the fact Ottawa forced a contest.
The loss didn’t come because of a lack of trying – Trudeau pulled out all the stops. In the competition with Ireland and Norway, concert tickets look to have been very popular in fighting for leverage.
Wednesday’s election comes after months of intense campaigning. Canada says it spent nearly $1.7 million on its campaign, which included an invitation for U. N. diplomats to attend a Celine Dion concert.
The BBC reports that Norway spent a whopping $2.8 million to secure one of the UN’s top positions. While spending only $800,000, Ireland courted diplomats by bringing them to a U2 concert.
