Stephen Harper Mocked Over Photos Of Empty Seats At UN Address

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is facing some mockery online after cameras caught quite a few empty seats during his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.

Gerald Butts, chief adviser to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, poked some fun on Twitter Friday.

The Great Statesman PM commanded quite the audience at the UN yesterday. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/87XsbFbbF2
— Gerald Butts (@gmbutts) September 26, 2014

Later, Butts compared the attendance for Harper's speech to that of U.S. President Barack Obama earlier in the week.

@Jean_Lapierre meanwhile, here's the room for Obama. pic.twitter.com/h5pFunah5b
— Gerald Butts (@gmbutts) September 26, 2014

Others suggested on social media — some playfully, some not — that the seemingly spotty attendance is proof that the prime minister is not respected on the international stage.

"Canada's standing in the world has never been higher." #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/IfTsMECQ0k
— Ben Parsons (@bfaparsons) September 26, 2014

CBC The National just showed another shot of the empty room at the UN. Even worse than the other photo. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/wgPROX0T8e
— Ben Parsons (@bfaparsons) September 26, 2014

This is what the international community thinks of #Harper: IRRELEVANT and a WASTE of time. #Harper @UN #LOL #Cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/fXHJPtoPLE
— Suffi (@suffisanne) September 26, 2014

But while the optics may not be great for the PM, who spoke in the early evening, it would appear he is not the only Canadian prime minister to have trouble packing the house at the UN headquarters in New York.

Here is a photo of former PM Paul Martin's address to the UN General Assembly in 2004, showing plenty of empty seats.

Here's Martin again in 2005:

And here's what it looked like when Jean Chretien addressed the UN General Assembly for the last time as Canadian prime minister in September, 2003.

Harper's speech Thursday was considered something of a surprise as he urged world leaders to focus on child and maternal health, but did not spend much time addressing other global conflicts and crises.

Harper did say, however, that Canada is ready to join with "other civilized peoples" to challenge "affronts to human dignity itself" present "in Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine, in the Middle East, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere, and of course many parts of Africa."

Earlier in the day, Harper announced Canada will contribute to a new international fund to prevent maternal and newborn deaths, as part of what he calls his top development priority.

The prime minister addressed that cause at length in his speech, telling world leaders that saving the lives of mothers and children is a fight that can be won.

"We have it in our power to create a better kind of world for our children’s children than we have today," he said. "And we should."

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca/
Author: The Huffington Post Canada