OTTAWA - Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, arrives in Spain today for the start of a nine-day tour of European capitals and and a series of meetings with leaders to pitch his plan for African revival.
In addition to Madrid, Mr. Chrétien travels to Rome, Paris -- where he will take a weekend off with his wife, Aline -- and London.
The trip, however, is also meant to underscore the relationship Canada has with Europeans, a bond that is quite separate from its relationship with the United States.
"There's this whole issue of how we are re-examining our relationship with the United States," a senior government official said yesterday. "People are talking about diversifying and not being dependent on the States.... So this is building upon that role and how we are tied not only with the Americans but also to the Europeans."
The Opposition yesterday called for Mr. Chrétien to stay home to deal with the fallout from reports that Shelia Fraser, the Auditor-General, will urge the federal government to launch an RCMP probe into three contracts worth $1.6-million awarded to a Montreal advertising firm.
"He should be here leading this country, getting his government out of the mess they're in," John Reynolds, the interim Opposition leader, said.
Mr. Chrétien meets tomorrow with Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar for the Canada- European Summit, during which he will discuss security, trade, the Middle East crisis and Afghan reconstruction.
Mr. Aznar now occupies the rotating presidency of the European Union. Canada meets with the EU twice a year.
Although no deal will be reached at this summit, the two leaders are also expected to continue talks on a historic agreement that could see Canadian soldiers participating in European-led peacekeeping missions. The Americans would not be involved in this rapid-reaction force, which is attractive to the Chrétien government and its efforts to show it is independent of the United States.
This force would be separate from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of which Canada and the United States are partners.
"If the EU were to be engaged in a military action somewhere, we would like to keep the option open for us to come and help them with that," a Canadian official said in a briefing last Friday. "This is quite an important file that is evolving."
Later, in a private meeting with the Spanish President, Mr. Chrétien is to talk about the plan for African relief that he is presenting at next month's G8 summit in Alberta.
Although Spain is not a member of the G8, the European Union is sending an observer to the Kananaskis summit.
It is not clear yet what will be in the G8 development package. African leaders, however, have said $64-billion in public and private investment is needed.
Though Mr. Chrétien has indicated that humanitarian aid to Africa will continue, a larger share of funding and investment will be given to countries that show improvements on democratic and human-rights reforms.
Bill Graham, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Pierre Pettigrew, the Minister for International Trade, will travel with the Prime Minister and meet with their EU counterparts.
Canada and the EU share concerns about U.S. trade protectionism on steel, and together are pursuing some other cases involving U.S. protectionism. The farm bill that would give mammoth subsidies to U.S. farmers is a potential irritant between Canada and the EU. Many people in Canada and the United States would point to European agricultural subsidies as the root cause of the U.S. farm bill.
The tour will take Mr. Chrétien from Madrid to Rome, where he is to meet with Silvio Berlusconi , the Italian Prime Minister, on Friday, and then to Paris, where Mr. Chrétien, and his wife, Aline, will spend the weekend, and where he is tentatively scheduled to meet Jacques Chirac, the newly re-elected French President, on Monday. On Wednesday, he meets with Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister.
Senior officials defended the importance of the Prime Minister meeting face-to-face for quick lunches or dinners with the European leaders rather than discussing business on the telephone. One of the officials argued that "body language" is key to delivering the message and noting the reaction of the other leaders. As well, it is "customary," officials argued, for the host of the upcoming G8 summit to visit the leaders who will attend.
jtaber@nationalpost.com
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