Prime Minister Stephen Harper was a great admirer of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, not so much for his particularly political philosophy, but for the way Blair, like Harper, managed to bring disparate elements of a political party together and lead it out of the political wilderness and into power. The two men had a good relationship.
But now there is a new man at 10 Downing Street — Gordon Brown. And just yesterday, Gordon Brown’s men were running around the Commonwealth Summit telling anyone who would care to listen that Canada was the lone stick-in-the-mud when it came to getting anything done to prevent global warming. Brown and Harper have run into each other before — Brown, of course, was Tony Blair’s long-serving Finance Minister — but this is the first time the two have met this way prime minister-to-prime minister. Journalists were allowed intot the meeting at the beginning to snap a picture of the two men and as soon as one of us tried to ask a question, we were quickly hustled out. My sources in the PMO tell me that soon after the journalists left, all the advisors and officials did, too. The two men were alone for the better part of the 45–minute meeting.
So: The account we have of this meeting would presumably come from Harper himself who told his staff what happened who then wrote up this note so that I could pass it along to readers of this blog:
Reflecting the strong agenda of issues of common concern, Prime Minister Harper and Prime Minister Brown had a substantive and cordial bilateral meeting.
In addition to reaffirming the depth, breadth and quality of the bilateral relationship, exemplified by extensive trade and investment linkages and science and technology partnerships, the leaders discussed a number of items on the international agenda.
Leaders discussed Afghanistan where Canada and the UK share the objective of supporting the government of Afghanistan, in collaboration with other international partners, re-establish democracy, a strong judicial system and respect for human rights, and promote internal reconciliation in Afghanistan.
Climate change was discussed, with both leaders agreeing on the need to build momentum towards a substantive outcome of the December UN meeting on climate change, which will be held in Indonesia. Prime Minister Harper repeated his conviction that climate change is a global problem requiring a global solution which, in order to be effective in reducing green house gas emissions, will necessarily include all major emitters.