Those who lament that Canada is a faded power in the world usually focus onCanadian heroics in bygone wars. But if Canada has loomed large on theinternational stage it’s also because we’ve occasionally captured the globalimagination with a powerful idea for making the world a better place.

One such inspiring moment of Canadian leadership came in 1969 when PrimeMinister Lester Pearson got world leaders to tackle a problem that barelyseems to register with today’s leaders — how to reduce the enormous gapbetween rich and poor nations.

As head of an international commission, Pearson proposed that rich countriescommit themselves to spending 0.7 per cent of their GDPs on foreign aid, anidea adopted by the U.N. General Assembly and endorsed by 22 wealthynations.

Unfortunately, this story of Canadian leadership ends here, and turns into astory of Canadian laggardship.

Five northern European countries have long ago met and even exceeded the 0.7per cent goal.

Then there’s another tier of western nations — Germany, France, Britain,Spain, Belgium, Ireland and Finland — that have at least committedthemselves to a timetable to get there.

Canada belongs in a lower tier of nations that fall far short of the goaland refuse to even commit to a timetable. Our foreign aid amounts to a mere0.26 per cent of GDP. This puts us in the bottom rung of western nations,down there with Greece (0.23 per cent) and the U.S. (0.11 per cent).

As a result, a program to control malaria in Africa — a disease that kills twomillion children a year — remains without a sponsor. If Canada met itstarget, we could finance that program.

But despite eight years of huge budget surpluses in Ottawa, the Liberalgovernment recently decided to keep us roughly where we are, toward thebottom of the pack.

Ottawa found an extra $12 billion to put into our military, but only $3billion extra for foreign aid. It’s hard to imagine investing in the world’spoor wouldn’t enhance our security as much as buying a lot of militaryhardware.

Canada has been notably absent from a recent campaign to revive the 0.7 percent targets — a campaign that’s gaining momentum worldwide.

Instead of Pearson leading the crusade, the world now looks to Bono.Ironically, Bono is a huge fan of Canada’s and sees Paul Martin as a potentialleader in the fight. If Martin would only listen to his rock-star friend,he’d find an issue that could capture the imagination of Canadians, who arehungry for the kind of moral leadership they associate with Pearson andPierre Trudeau.

Martin cajoled Bono to speak at the event crowning him Liberal leader in2003. He recognizes the PR value in being associated with Bono’s crusade.

But when it comes to actually leading the fight against world poverty, ourPrime Minister seems to think the heavy lifting is best left to rock stars.

Linda McQuaig

Journalist and best-selling author Linda McQuaig has developed a reputation for challenging the establishment. As a reporter for The Globe and Mail, she won a National Newspaper Award in 1989...