Kenneth Frankel is the president of the Canadian Council for the Americas.
Common sentiment now echoing in government offices throughout Latin America and the Caribbean is that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is more simpatico in substance, tone and style than was his predecessor.
"Trudeau is what we thought Canada was," a senior Latin American government official told me recently. However, officials are waiting to see how the Prime Minister will engage with them because neither the Liberal election platform nor his campaign speeches addressed their region.
Mr. Trudeau has inherited a rare opportunity to reposition Canada as a critical collaborator in the Western Hemisphere.
There now exists a critical mass of like-minded leaders in the Americas who, like Mr. Trudeau, are inclined to practical solutions and less beholden to encumbering ideologies – Argentine President-elect Mauricio Macri is the latest and a strategically significant example. They have experienced the deficiencies of the "neo-liberal" economic model of the right in the 1990s and are witnessing the debacle of the 21st-century Chavista experiment on the left. Their constituents, increasingly middle-class, are publicly demanding more government responsiveness and transparency.
Mr. Trudeau need not look far to find issues of common interest to pursue with his colleagues. Regional leaders are looking for solutions to several issues that are close to his heart, including reforming drug laws and strengthening environmental standards.
They recognize that the current drug laws do not properly treat the health aspects of the problem, are unfairly applied, have failed to stem the flow and have given rise to transnational gangs that terrorize civilians and corrupt government institutions. They want new approaches and believe that reforms should be co-ordinated throughout the hemisphere.
As for the environment, the region has suffered the world's greatest deforestation since the 1992 Rio Conference, rising sea levels, hurricanes, mudslides and changing weather patterns. The leaders would like Canada to be a positive force with technical expertise and green investment facilities required to meet the implementation and remediation goals following the climate talks in Paris.
These issues are not the sole pillars of a hemispheric policy, but they could provide immediate entry points to help Canada find its way back to its traditional role as an influential, nimble, diplomatic player. The region's leaders would interpret Mr. Trudeau's engagement in drug and environmental matters as a symbolic and substantive heralding of a new Canadian modus operandi. The former Conservative government was unsympathetic to reform efforts on both files.
Mr. Trudeau has already begun to repair Canada's strained relations with Mexico. He has revived the annual tripartite leaders meeting with Mexico and the United States that former prime minister Stephen Harper had postponed and has removed the visa requirement for Mexicans that was an open wound with the Mexican government.
The immediate challenge for Mr. Trudeau is not to find other important issues to get busy with – there are plenty of those – but rather to change the perception in the region that Canada has become too ideologically rigid and its diplomats too constrained to be a constructive voice. This perception has hindered the country's ability to engage as an important voice in the ongoing conversations about critical issues.
These issues include the economic transition under way in Cuba, the volatile political unravelling in Venezuela and the implementation of the Colombian peace plan with the FARC guerrillas.
Mr. Trudeau has a unique opportunity to engage with Cuba given his family's legacy with the island, and the fact that Canada is only one of two hemispheric countries never to have broken relations with the Castro brothers. With close economic, political and social ties (there are 100,000 Canadians of Colombian heritage living in Canada), and hands-on involvement in prior peacemaking efforts in Colombia, Canada is well positioned to support Colombia's efforts.
As for economic initiatives, Latin American leaders continually tell the Canadian Council for the Americas that they want more Canadian trade and investment, particularly in infrastructure development. Canadian investment in Latin America has tripled over the past 10 years and now accounts for 7.4 per cent of total Canadian direct foreign investment. (China accounts for 0.8, India 0.1 and the other major Pacific Rim countries combined, including Australia, account for 5.8 per cent.) Three of the 12 countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership are Latin American, with two more ready to join.
By continuing the previous government's support for regional trade initiatives such as the Pacific Alliance and resourcing efforts to promote even deeper economic ties, Mr. Trudeau would benefit both Canada and the country's most attractive trade and investment partners in the hemisphere.
Given Canada's opportunities, converting Mr. Trudeau's simpatico into constructive action may only require the government to ponerse las pilas – charge the batteries and get going.