{"id":63858,"date":"2015-10-29T03:08:50","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T08:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=63858"},"modified":"2015-10-29T03:08:50","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T08:08:50","slug":"trudeau-a-true-environment-amigo-to-north-america-mexican-envoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/10\/29\/trudeau-a-true-environment-amigo-to-north-america-mexican-envoy\/","title":{"rendered":"Trudeau a true environment \u2018amigo\u2019 to North America: Mexican envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Liberal<\/a>
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau (Facebook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2013 Justin Trudeau\u2019s election gives Mexico and the United States a true continental \u201camigo\u201d in the fight against climate change, Mexico\u2019s ambassador said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Envoy Francisco Suarez said that under the Harper Conservatives, Canada lagged behind Mexico and the U.S. on environmental policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe green agenda of the Canadian government was behind the United States and Mexico. Let’s put it that way,\u201d Suarez said in an interview at the Mexican embassy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMexico and the United States were very much in favour of pushing forward meaningful agreements, meaningful targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez said with Trudeau planning to attend December\u2019s major international climate change in Paris, known as COP 21, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, U.S. President Barack Obama and the newly elected Liberal leader will provide a unified North American front.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure one issue we\u2019ll be working very, very closely with the prime minister is on the COP meeting. Obama, Trudeau \u2013 the three amigos \u2013 will be acting as three amigos on climate change in Paris,\u201d said Suarez, using the label has been applied to the periodic summits of North American leaders over the last decade.<\/p>\n

Pena Nieto wanted to be the first foreign leader to congratulate Trudeau on his Oct. 19 election victory and managed to get his call through first, said Suarez.<\/p>\n

Mexico hopes Trudeau will follow through on a campaign promise to end the visa requirement for travellers from that country. Suarez says the visa policy is the major irritant in an otherwise good relationship between the two countries.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrote to Pena Nieto earlier this year telling him his government was moving to lift the visa requirement by implementing a new electronic system.<\/p>\n

The government introduced the visa in 2009 in what it said was a clamp down on bogus refugee claimants, but the imposition angered Mexicans, who saw it as a slap in the face to a major trading partner.<\/p>\n

The ambassador says Trudeau should make Mexico his first international stop as prime minister, or at least second after the United States. He said the \u201cLiberal brand\u201d is strong in Mexico, in part due to the popularity of Trudeau’s father, Pierre.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be getting a hero\u2019s reception. And if he would announce in Mexico the elimination of the visas, he will be getting a standing ovation. And that, in itself would make it an extremely successful foreign policy success to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudeau already has a full schedule of international meetings in the coming weeks, in addition to the Paris summit. They are the G20 leaders\u2019 summit in Turkey, the APEC summit in the Philippines and the Commonwealth summit in Malta.<\/p>\n

So far, Trudeau has committed only to attending the Paris climate change meeting, long with opposition party leaders and provincial premiers.<\/p>\n

But like other countries, Mexico hopes to see Trudeau at the other summits. Suarez said Pena Nieto would be eager to meet Trudeau on the margins of the G20.<\/p>\n

In addition to the environment, Mexico and Canada now share common ground on economic policy, especially when it comes to infrastructure, said Suarez.<\/p>\n

Trudeau said he would run three years of modest deficits to stimulate what he said was a stagnant economy.<\/p>\n

Suarez said Mexico believes in strong infrastructure investment, which \u201cgenerates modest fiscal deficit\u201d because it creates jobs and grows the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the pro-growth camp rather than the austerity, sluggish, stagnant growth camp,\u201d said Suarez.<\/p>\n

\u201cPro-growth sustained on efficient infrastructure investment, while maintaining solid public financing… Europe went to austerity, austerity, austerity and everything deteriorated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2013 Justin Trudeau\u2019s election gives Mexico and the United States a true continental \u201camigo\u201d in the fight against climate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":63202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-63858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-original","mauthors-mike-blanchfield","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}