Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced today that Canada was re-opening its embassy in Tripoli. The embassy had been closed to permit the Canadian-led bombing of the country in the interest of protecting its civilians.
"Canada is proud to have punched above its weight", Baird said at the announcement. Punching above their weight is a major preoccupation for Canadian politicians. The Canadian perspective has been that we did not actually "bomb" Libya, but that we were merely "projecting our democratic values". Baird had been photographed in June autographing a 500 lb. laser-guided projectile of democratic values.
Baird also announced that Canada has unfrozen 2.2 billion dollars in Libyan assets to allow the Libyans to continue contracts with Canadian companies. Canada had major oil and construction projects underway at the time of the anti-Gaddafi uprising, and the business comunity breathed a collective sigh of relief when they realized that it would be business as usual under the new regime.
Abubaker Karmos, the Transitional Council's man in Ottawa, said "It's nice to see Canada taking a leading role". Other observers added that Canada would benefit from the increased stability. "Sure, we made tons of money here when Gaddafi was in charge, but this Golden Goose is gonna be dropping even bigger eggs now that we've secured the place for democracy".
No comments:
Post a Comment