Governor-General of Canada with the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth - 9 June 2009 at Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Canada. © 2009 Office of the Secretary to the Governor-General of Canada
Secretary-General visits Canada
10 June 2009
Sharma, Prime Minister Harper review pivotal role Canada has played in the modern Commonwealth
The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma, visited Canada 8-10 June 2009 to meet with senior Canadian officials and make the keynote presentation at the 15th edition of the Conference de Montreal.
During his visit to Ottawa on 9 June he met with Governor-General Michaëlle Jean, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon, attended a luncheon hosted in his honour by Peter Kent, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and met with Jim Abbott, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Development.
In addition, Mr Sharma participated in a conference on the Commonwealth hosted by David Malone, President of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and attended by a large group of foreign policy experts and resident high commissioners.
Conference de Montreal
The International Economic Forum of the Americas/Conference de Montreal is committed to heighten knowledge and awareness of the major issues of economic globalisation, with a particular emphasis on the relations between the Americas and other continents.
“Canada and the Commonwealth are joined at the hip,” he told Prime Minister Harper, as both leaders reviewed the pivotal role Canada has played in the modern Commonwealth since its creation 60 years ago.
The Secretary-General briefed the Prime Minister on preparations concerning the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) scheduled for Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, this coming November.
He informed Mr Harper that, in his view, “an alliance of Commonwealth elections commissioners should be created to ensure that Elections Commissions throughout the Commonwealth are self-standing, independent, and resilient enough to face pressures from whatever quarter, [and] is an idea whose time has come.”
Mr Sharma added: “The brand strength of both the Commonwealth and Canada is that both stand for values based societies in which self-improvement is both a constant goal and ongoing process.”
He described the ongoing work the Commonwealth is doing in creating new networks to bring people from across the globe together to share information and experiences. “This exercise in web based governance,” he underscored, “affects all sectors of human endeavour - from agricultural practices to e-health, from education to skills development. A lot of this work has been pioneered by the Commonwealth of Learning - based in Vancouver and strongly supported by Canada.”
The Secretary-General noted that Canada is the second largest contributor to the Commonwealth, and supports strongly such governance efforts as elections monitoring missions - vital to ensure free and fair elections.
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