Norway

Saturday February 8, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 8, 2020

As Trudeau campaigns in Africa for UN Security Council seat, Norwegian PM is steps behind

Nearly everywhere Justin Trudeau goes in Addis Ababa, it seems Norway’s prime minister isn’t far behind.

September 21, 2016

On Saturday, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg arrived to an African Union meeting on gender equality just minutes after Trudeau did. Then, she followed in Trudeau’s footsteps, strolling through Unity Park with the Ethiopian prime minister. And as Trudeau was leaving Jubilee Palace from his meeting with the Ethiopian president, Solberg’s staffers were in the building preparing for her imminent arrival.

It’s no coincidence. The two leaders are both in Africa to win support from world leaders for a UN Security Council seat they both want to win. And Norway’s prime minister is suggesting that when it comes to that campaign, it may be Canada who is trailing behind.

“I think one of the differences, of course, is we have been on the steady same path for a very long time, so [African leaders] know us,” Solberg told Canadian reporters.

Take, for example, the African Union meeting. Trudeau made history on this trip by being the first Canadian prime minister to attend an African Union session. But Solberg was also here last year.

January 13, 2018

The African Union is a rich source of potential votes for any country looking to win a Security Council seat. It has 54 voting members at the United Nations, roughly a quarter of the total votes.

Speaking to Canadian reporters, the Norwegian leader said she didn’t want to emphasize competition between the two countries, noting they take the same approach to many issues. But she suggested Norway was perhaps more deeply engaged.

“Canada is a bigger economy, a larger country, of course, but on the other hand we are using more in development aid. We have used more support for the international policies as part of our GDP.”

In 2018, Norway spent nearly one per cent of its gross national income on international assistance. For Canada, the figure was 0.28 per cent, according to OECD figures.

October 13, 2010

Norway, Ireland and Canada are all gunning for one of the two limited-term UN Security Council seats that open up next year.

Ireland too, has been plotting a course of engagement with Africa for years. It launched its “Africa Strategy” in 2011.

While all countries see the seat as something of a prize that would allow their countries to play an influential role in world affairs, Solberg said the seat is also something of a burden.

“It’s an obligation that you have as supporters of multi-lateralism, as a supporter of rule of law. “

“You have to take the burden of sitting on the Security Council, because it’s also a burden. You have to take a stand on some policy decisions that as a non-member you don’t have to do.” (CBC) 

 

Saturday January 13, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 13, 2018

Norway was once the kind of country Trump might’ve spit on. Now its people don’t even want to come here.

After telling lawmakers in an Oval Office meeting Thursday he doesn’t want more immigration from “shithole countries,” President Trump said the U.S. should bring in more people from countries such as Norway instead.

December 8, 2015

In the history of international migration to the U.S., it was a deeply ironic statement. (Many have also called it racist, since Trump used the vulgarity to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African nations.)

About a century ago, a wave of European migration drew many Norwegians to the U.S. At the time, they faced challenges assimilating and catching up with native-born Americans.

But now that the president wants Norwegians to come on over? They’re likely too successful to bother.

Norway may have been on Trump’s mind due to his recent meeting with the country’s prime minister, who would have reason to boast of her country’s economic success. Norway has ranked at the top of the U.N.’s Human Development Index for all of this century. By all measures, it has a high quality of life.

But, interestingly enough, that’s a relatively recent development.

For the vast majority of their shared history, including the period in the mid-to-late 1800s and early 1900s that comprised the biggest wave of immigration from what is now Norway to the United States, Norway might have been on the president’s so-called manure pile.

European immigrants of that time fueled many of the same fears about immigration we see today, and politicians fought to close the nation’s borders back then as successive waves of migrants from different European countries faced hostility upon arrival in the U.S. (Source: Washington Post) 

 

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