Head of United Nations praises PM Trudeau during Ottawa visit

I didn’t know we “left” the United Nations even though I thought we should have.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to visit city hall around noon.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined Ban in Ottawa Thursday to discuss climate change, refugees and peacekeeping, as well as Canada’s involvement in the security council and United Nations peacekeeper’s recent sex abuse scandal.

Ban also commended Canada on its “compassionate approach” to Syrian refugees.

Trudeau says seeking a council seat meshes with his government’s plan to renew Canada’s relationship with the world body, which cooled under the previous government. “We are going to evaluate the opportunities for Canada to mount a successful bid”.

“I highlighted to the secretary general that part of Canada wishing to re-engage robustly with the United Nations and in multilateral engagement around the world includes looking towards a bid for the UN Security Council”, Trudeau said.

Asked about the commitment to balance the budget by 2019/20, Trudeau replied: “If you look at the growth forecasts for the next three or four years, that will be hard”.

A return to the council would mark a major comeback for Canada, after the country finished an embarrassing third in 2010 during first-round voting in the General Assembly to fill council vacancies.

He credited Trudeau’s leadership with helping secure the “breakthrough” global agreement on climate change reached at the Paris summit in December. Critics blamed the historic loss on Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, saying that it failed to make a strong bid.

“It is important to understand that while air strike operations can be very useful to achieve short-term military and territorial gains, they do not on their own achieve long-term stability for local communities”, Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

The Prime Minister said the government is committed to strengthening the UN’s peacekeeping ability in the world, and is especially anxious to be involved with human rights efforts aimed at increasing gender equality around the world.