If Bob Geldof has changed the world, Canada can share at least part of the credit. Not for getting behind his campaign for famine relief in Africa, or for responding to his proposals on debt relief for developing nations. Mr. Geldof credits Canada – Vancouver, specifically – with helping him develop the kind of self-worth a person might need to start a rock 'n' roll band. Or try to save a continent from crushing poverty.
“You gave me great confidence,” the rock star activist told The Globe and Mail Tuesday during an interview in Vancouver, where he lived in the early 1970s.
“The fact that the ideas I had worked, and I was allowed to get on with it, and that failure was not vilified or shameful, I got that from here. … Without Vancouver, my life as Bob just wouldn't have happened.”
Now, more than 35 years later, Mr. Geldof is turning to this country once again for help, this time hoping his campaign for African relief can capitalize on Canada's upcoming role in the spotlight.
Mr. Geldof – who, as the organizer of Band Aid, Live Aid and the Live 8 concerts has raised millions of dollars for African relief – was invited to Vancouver for the Peace Summit to honour his friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu (who was not, in the end, able to attend due to back problems) and to accept an award from the African Children's Choir.
But he is here mostly because, as an activist, he sees an opportunity. Mr. Geldof said next year will be a big one for this country: Hosting the Winter Olympics, the G8 and the G20 will put Canada on the world stage, and he wants to use the occasion to push his agenda forward.
“It's an immense year for diplomacy for your country, whatever your political position is, whatever government you support. Willy-nilly, you've got the world's attention.”
With that in mind, Mr. Geldof and his good friend and fellow activist Bono have been tag-teaming it this month, holding meetings east and west (Bono's band U2 performed in Toronto a couple of weeks ago), trying to mobilize politicians, activists and the media to get African relief on the radar at a time when recessionary issues dominate.
“And so we begin laying the groundwork for next year's activities. Bono was out in Toronto … and he was talking to the constituency and beginning to make the alliances, and I'm here on the West Coast this week doing precisely the same thing.” The country's so big, he jokes, that you need to attack it from two ends.
Mr. Geldof applauded Canada for meeting the commitment it made at the 2005 G8 Summit to double aid to Africa. And he said that as host next year, it can take a leadership position on the issue and continue to push the envelope.
But with indications that the Harper government is going to shift its aid efforts largely to Latin America, Mr. Geldof is polishing up his sales pitch, arguing that Africa presents a huge opportunity, not just from a humanitarian standpoint, but in terms of sheer numbers of consumers on the continent and the development opportunities that come with that.
“Consider Africa in terms of 900 million producers and consumers and you can see that the global growth would be of massive benefit.”
Mr. Geldof has not met Prime Minister Stephen Harper (although he has met “The Missus” as he refers to Laureen Harper), but he has a message for him: It is very much in Canada's self-interest to continue to make African aid and trade a priority.
“The cost is infinitesimal to the national budget. I mean beyond tiny. But what you get back, I don't mean in feeling good – spare me that – I mean in actual hard political terms, is immense. One, you get to be a player with the top guys. Two, you have immense power and influence.”
