While the Harper government blames Michael Ignatieff, ambassadors interviewed by Canadian Press don’t mention the opposition leader. Instead, African ambassadors tell Canadian Press it was the Harper government’s positions on debt relief and the UN Relief and Works Agency.
But “senior African officials” tell Postmedia Africa does not feel negatively. Instead, “officials based at the UN” say it was the Harper government’s position on Israel that upset members of the Organization of Islamic Conference, while one “senior Islamic official” says the OIC felt snubbed when Canada didn’t address the conference like Portugal did. Don Martin says “some” say the United Arab Emirates lobbied other Arab counties to vote against Canada after the Harper government refused to open runways in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, but a “senior government official” says Canada got a “good chunk” of the Arab vote.
Meanwhile, “government insiders” were preemptively guessing it might be Peter Van Loan, in Israel, with the new trade deal.
