Yesterday we saw the Canadian campaign for a United Nations Security Council seat go up in smoke and we saw Canada get kicked out of Camp Mirage in the UAE, our main staging ground for troops and assets in Afghanistan.  The United Arab Emirates even went so far as to deny its airspace to Canada's Minister of Defence Peter McKay because of a rift between the countries stemming from the Harper government refusing to negotiate allowing more UAE state run airline service to Canada, something Air Canada opposed.

Canada has been elected to a seat on the council at least once a decade stretching back to the forties, a string now broken.  Germany won a seat on the first ballot in the secret vote which left Portugal and Canada battling for the final spot.  Unfortunately for Canada, the second ballot left the Canuks far behind their rivals which prompted Canada's U.N. ambassador and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon to decide to drop out of the race, leaving Portugal with the final seat.

Former diplomats say that the loss stems from the Tories foreign policy which worked against Canada's chances at getting a seat.  According to an article at the CBC, "Paul Heinbecker, Canada's former ambassador to the UN and a leading critic of the government's foreign policy, said many of Canada's decisions -- including decreased African aid, its support of Israel, and its stance on climate change and peacekeeping -- are unpopular with the international community."  And yet, when asked if Canada's foreign policy had something to do with the loss of the highly coveted seat, Mr. Cannon flatly denied that possibility.  Instead he chose to blame Liberal opposition leader Michael Ignatieff for the loss because of comments made in which Mr. Ignatieff criticized Harper's earlier scorn towards the United Nations as an organization

He said, "This is a government that for four years has basically ignored the United Nations and now is suddenly showing up saying, 'Hey, put us on the council'." 

"Don't mistake me. I know how important it is for Canada to get a seat on the Security Council, but Canadians have to ask a tough question: 'Has this government earned that place?' We're not convinced it has."

My question to the Tories would be, how can you blame the opposition leader for doing their job in criticizing the government of the day?  It's Ignatieff's job to present a different point of view, while the government's job is to achieve its stated goals.  One of which was the bid for a U.N. Security Council seat that the Prime Minister was desperately vying for and failed at spectacularly.  His approach to foreign and domestic policy has been one of 'my way or the highway' and the international community resoundingly chastised the Canadian approach.  In defeat the Conservatives turned to what they know best and immediately became political instead of acknowledging their mistakes and being accountable.  Frankly, the behaviour is embarrassing.

In another bit of political wrangling, or unravelling if you like, the Globe and Mail is reporting that Defence Minister Peter MacKay and several other Conservative cabinet ministers were cut out of negotiations with the UAE over Camp Mirage and new flight routes for the small Middle Eastern nation, by the Prime Minister.  This has brought to light some rifts growing within the Conservative party itself and will be interesting to see what transpires between now and what will most probably be a spring election.  Especially after semi-disgraced Conservative MP Maxime Bernier came out swinging this morning, trying to shore up support in the extreme right of the party for a possible future challenge to the leadership of Stephen Harper.

It seems like politics is the Prime Minister's greatest weapon as well as his greatest weakness.  Not even the legendary grip Mr. Harper has on his government has been able to stop the media storm growing around this government with bad news all around them and they only have themselves to blame.  Lame finger pointing aside.