Robert Benzie
Queen’s Park Bureau Chief
JERUSALEM—Premier Dalton McGuinty came to one of the oldest cities in the world to discuss a future of clean water and green energy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
McGuinty, who has been treated like a head of state in his trade tour of Israel, pointedly did not discuss politics in this holy and disputed city.
“We didn’t get into that at all,” he told reporters Monday at the Jaffa Gate before privately touring the Old City of Jerusalem and praying at the Western Wall.
“We quickly discovered that while we live continents apart (and) have different political circumstances and different histories, when it comes to building an economy we’re actually on the same track and we can and should do more together.”
While the premier is visiting the West Bank on Thursday and Beirut on Friday, Israel’s ongoing tensions with its Arab neighbours — including controversial Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem — were not broached.
Indeed, the one-hour meeting in Netanyahu’s office, coming the day after McGuinty had an eventful audience with Israeli President Shimon Peres, began on a light note.
“So this is your first visit?” Netanyahu asked him.
“My very first visit — Israel is a small country with a big history,” the premier replied.
“It’s about the size of Canada,” Netanyahu cracked, ignoring the fact Israel is just 1/450th the size of Canada
“We’re just the opposite. Big country, small history,” said McGuinty.
Unlike the session Sunday with Peres, where the president sold the premier on a new “virtual” Israel-Ontario brain research institute, the Netanyahu meeting was held behind closed doors after a one-minute photo-op.
“Very positive, very constructive — one of the most constructive and positive meetings that I’ve ever had with an international leader,” a visibly pleased McGuinty said afterward.
“We ended the meeting by saying that what we’ll do is we’ll put in writing a concrete proposal because there are so many different areas and in particular we want to focus on the brain research, water, energy and renewables,” he said.
Netanyahu, who is travelling to Canada later this week and will speak Sunday to more 5,000 people at Toronto’s Direct Energy Centre to launch the United Jewish Appeal’s Walk With Israel, was keen to learn about Ontario’s efforts on education.
“He wanted to know what we were doing in Ontario in terms of education, how it was working, why it was working. He asked if we might immediately set up during the course of this trip another meeting between his education people and some of our people,” said McGuinty.
The Israeli leader was especially interested in Ontario’s new all-day learning for 4- and 5-year-olds, which is being phased in starting in September, and in the province’s success at posting online school rankings based on standardized tests results.
“Then we switched gears and we talked about energy from renewables. That’s a big issue here as well, obviously. They’re trying to reduce their energy from . . . carbon-based fuels so we have some common ground there,” the premier said.
“Then we talked about water. They have a tremendous expertise here. They’re very conservation-oriented. They understand that there are global opportunities as well. Then we talked about the proposal put forward (Sunday) by President Peres and he was very keen on that as well.”
Netanyahu’s warmth toward McGuinty is in part fuelled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s staunchly pro-Israel stance that has Canadians very popular here.
Earlier Monday, in Tel Aviv, Jon Allen, Canada’s ambassador to Israel, told Ontario delegates with McGuinty that “we are at the apex of a bilateral Canada-Israel relationship.”
McGuinty noted Israel’s “innovation-based economy,” and agreed Ontario can learn from Israel and vice versa. “It’s a simple but profound truth that we’re doing well on our own but we can do better together.”
Dr. Eli Opper, the chief scientist for Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour, said collaboration is key.
“So you need to be modest or humble to accept the notion that you can’t go it alone with your knowledge,” Opper told the Ontario delegation.
“Even the largest companies in the world are aware of the fact that the state-of-the-art new products, they do not have all the new knowledge they are needing. So the answer is cooperation.”
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- Srijoni
- Hello readers and bloggers! My name is Srijoni(hence the blog title) and this blog is created as an assignment. Hmm, let's see..I am the type of person that believes in equality, equity, rights and justice. I am extremely interested in the external affairs of Canada because it is so fascinating how the whole world has the ability to work as one. As a result of my passion and interest, most of the articles on this blog will probably be related to international relations or social justice. Hope you enjoy it! :)
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When I read this article, not only did I feel proud of being a Canadian but felt ecstatic at the idea that our premier, Dalton McGuinty took the step towards building Canada’s relations with a country other than the States. It always seems that the government of Canada is involved in policies and cooperation that involves America and I believe that it is time for us to step out of that bubble and show the world that we are capable of working with other nations, even if a whole ocean stands between us. Other than this, there were many aspects of this article that jumped out at me and made me feel all the more elated about Canada’s newfound relations with Israel.
Firstly, I adored the way Dalton McGuinty spoke with the politician of Israel about Canada. I felt that he carried himself with much dignity, diplomacy and maturity. Even though the politicians spoke highly of Israel, McGuinty let a few words depict Canada and Canadians completely. He said that “Canada is a big country with a small history” and this, in my opinion shows great modesty and simplicity that says a lot more than what bigger words about Canada would have shown. It portrayed acceptance and humility that Canadians posses, to Israel.
One of the most significant aspects of this article that caught my eye was despite Israel being a much smaller country than Canada with different political vies; McGuinty decided to break the barriers, ignore those minor differences and use teamwork to improve the environment of Ontario. It was phenomenal how easily both the countries found their strengths, weaknesses and similarities and decided to make that their common grounds to work together, as one. Israel wanted to know more about Canada’s excellent educational system while Dalton McGuinty wanted to know about water, which like he said is their “ expertise.” They both realized that they are trying to reduce energy from carbon-based fuels which can cause harm to the environment and wants to find more ways of basing our energy on renewable sources.
Obviously, this article hit a lot of issues at once and I enjoyed reading it tremendously. I loved seeing Canada step up to do something about the environment as well as expanding its external relations. This meeting was a great idea to being with and I am glad that it went so smoothly and nicely. I feel that this meeting was vital for Canada to meet its future goals of the betterment of the nation. It is like McGuinty said, “It’s a simple but profound truth that we’re doing well on our own but we can do better together.”
I chose this particular article because I realized that our civics class, being a leadership class might have various things to learn from it. This can help us better realize the importance of teamwork, maturity, patience and cooperation regardless of differences. Throughout our lives, we will come across people that our opinions vary from but we should not take it too seriously but come to common grounds with that person and make that difference our strength, similar to how diversity in Canada is, in my opinion, one of Canada’s strengths today. I think so because due to Canada’s diversity, we are blessed with so many new immigrants every year who come to this country because they feel welcomed by the diverse groups of people. It does not seem as terrifying when there are different types of people in a new place than if there was the same kind of people and that new person would stand out. Correspondingly, we should learn to work together despite our differences.
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