‘Brand Trudeau’ mulled to help pitch world on Canadian return to peackeeping
OTTAWA — Canadian bureaucrats pondered using the personal “brand” of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sell the world on the merits of the country’s return to peacekeeping, The Canadian Press has learned.
Using the prime minister’s personal appeal was seen by senior foreign ministry officials as one of the possible “framing” techniques for explaining Canada’s decision to devote more military resources to United Nations peacekeeping operations.
Documents obtained through Access to Information detail the early government planning to reboot Canada’s return to peacekeeping.
Once a traditional role for the Canadian Forces, it was all but abandoned in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when the military focused on counter-terrorism and war-fighting in Afghanistan.