ABSTRACT
The concept of global citizenship appears to have a particular affi nity for Canada and Canadians. Lloyd Axworthy, who was Minister of Foreign Aff airs from 1996 to 2000, played a key role in the international ban on land mines and developing the doctrine of right to protect, began his recent book with a paean to his compatriots’ vocation as global citizens:
Canadians are on the road to global citizenship. Increasingly, in work, travel, education and in personal and political engagement, the world is our precinct, with international trade, technology and business driving much of our global interests. But there is also a political, cultural and even moral dimension to our emerging role in global society. (Axworthy, 2003, p. 1)
And when the distinguished professor of international law Michael Byers (2007) asked in the subtitle of his book: What is Canada for? his answer was that its role, as a country, is to be a global citizen:
[Canada] achieves its greatest successes when it charts a path that is not determined solely by economic factors…a truly great country should be about… addressing global developments, such as climate change, that threaten the safety and well-being of all. And it should be about improving the lot of human beings everywhere for the simple reason that doing so is right and just. (Byers, 2007, p. 240-241)
For her part, Jennifer Welsh generally eschews the term global citizenship, but proposes that Canada aspire to something very similar: to be a model citizen:
[F]irst, it must show others what a liberal democracy looks like in the post-September-11 era; second, it must work side by side with others in less stable parts of the world, demonstrating how they might create the foundations for healthier societies… [This model] also suggests activism: model citizens continually strive to make the commons more just. (Welsh, 2005, p. 26)
One particularly interesting aspect of Welsh’s vision is that it goes beyond government to include individual Canadians, and particularly younger Canadians, whose international
engagements demonstrate that they are “inherently internationalist” and “already at home in the world” (Welsh, 2004, p. 34; Welsh 2005, pp. 28, 239-240).1
