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Move the UN to Montreal? Mais non, merci!
Steven Edwards
National Post
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Promoting his province before a New York business audience recently, Jean Charest, the Quebec Premier, sprinkled his remarks with amusing quips.
Here's one that would have brought the house down: His government believes it can convince the United Nations to quit New York for Montreal.
Last year, Raymond Bachand, the province's economic development minister, allocated $100,000 for feasibility studies, while the federal, provincial and Montreal governments chipped in another $50,000 through promotion agency Montreal International.
The agency's line? Montreal would save the UN a ton of money and become a world capital in the process.
Alas, the disparate forces that run the UN have little interest in cost efficiencies -- that's for capitalists.
They're much more interested in other factors, such as the opportunities for spying on the United States, or getting to live in a multi-mil-lion-dollar Manhattan brownstone. The annual summit just wouldn't be the same without delegates having easy access to swanky Fifth Avenue shops.
"The thing is, moving to Montreal would mean the diplomats have to forgo all their social arrangements," says Ian Williams, author of The UN for Beginners.
The prime mover behind the relocation to Montreal is Jean O'Keefe, a Montreal transportation consultant whose other non-work passion is running the Web site The Worldwide Gourmet.
He says he and business colleagues noted New Yorkers were complaining more than ever about the UN last year after it lobbied U.S. taxpayers for more than $1-billion in interest-free loans to finance renovations to its headquarters building.
This was on top of perennial gripes about UN diplomats not paying their parking fines, or blocking the roads with their limousine cavalcades, or using diplomatic immunity as an excuse to hold back rent or property taxes.
If Gotham doesn't appreciate their international guests, O'Keefe and company thought, Montreal will.
As the UN's refit bill ballooned to $2.1-billion, the Quebec government sent a delegation to New York to show a move to Montreal would cost only $790-million. For a total of $2.2-billion, Montreal could accommodate not only the UN, but the 192 country missions and a host of linked activist organizations, the city's daily La Presse reported.
The Quebec group was received by Mark Malloch Brown, then UN deputy secretary general, whose known distaste for the Bush administration suggests he provided a sympathetic ear.
Backers of the move argued Montreal's bilingual character made it a perfect fit, given the world body's two "working" languages are English and French. But like so much at the UN, the linguistic profile is an anachronism. Only 32 of the 192 member states ask for correspondence in French only; 140 say they can handle English, while 20 prefer Spanish.
The Quebecers also point to Montreal's low crime rate compared with New York's. But notwithstanding what goes on in some New York neighbourhoods, there aren't many muggings in the back of a Lincoln Town Car, the preferred form of transport for many UN-ers. What's more, almost all the UN's New York buildings are in highly policed parts of Manhattan, itself the most elite borough.
Stalin reportedly agreed to place UN headquarters in the United States because he saw the potential for spying on the host country. While the United States has also been caught eavesdropping on others, the UN's current location provides ideal cover for placing spies inside the world's only remaining superpower.
Few believe that Cuba's massive UN delegation -- with 40 diplomats, it's almost double Canada's -- are all working solely on development issues.
Gotham's nightlife is also a big hit with many diplomats. Where else can you drop almost $130,000 in one night, as a Bangladeshi official did at the high-priced strip joint Scores?
Despite the griping of New Yorkers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made it clear the city wants to keep the UN; the world body and its more than 9,000 accredited diplomats and their families pump in more than $3-billion every year into the local economy.
Quebec's Bachand says last year's presentation was made in response to a "window of opportunity" that now seems to have closed.
While the sum spent on the project was not enormous, there were surely better uses for the money.
Move the UN to Montreal? Mais non, merci!
Steven Edwards
National Post
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Promoting his province before a New York business audience recently, Jean Charest, the Quebec Premier, sprinkled his remarks with amusing quips.
Here's one that would have brought the house down: His government believes it can convince the United Nations to quit New York for Montreal.
Last year, Raymond Bachand, the province's economic development minister, allocated $100,000 for feasibility studies, while the federal, provincial and Montreal governments chipped in another $50,000 through promotion agency Montreal International.
The agency's line? Montreal would save the UN a ton of money and become a world capital in the process.
Alas, the disparate forces that run the UN have little interest in cost efficiencies -- that's for capitalists.
They're much more interested in other factors, such as the opportunities for spying on the United States, or getting to live in a multi-mil-lion-dollar Manhattan brownstone. The annual summit just wouldn't be the same without delegates having easy access to swanky Fifth Avenue shops.
"The thing is, moving to Montreal would mean the diplomats have to forgo all their social arrangements," says Ian Williams, author of The UN for Beginners.
The prime mover behind the relocation to Montreal is Jean O'Keefe, a Montreal transportation consultant whose other non-work passion is running the Web site The Worldwide Gourmet.
He says he and business colleagues noted New Yorkers were complaining more than ever about the UN last year after it lobbied U.S. taxpayers for more than $1-billion in interest-free loans to finance renovations to its headquarters building.
This was on top of perennial gripes about UN diplomats not paying their parking fines, or blocking the roads with their limousine cavalcades, or using diplomatic immunity as an excuse to hold back rent or property taxes.
If Gotham doesn't appreciate their international guests, O'Keefe and company thought, Montreal will.
As the UN's refit bill ballooned to $2.1-billion, the Quebec government sent a delegation to New York to show a move to Montreal would cost only $790-million. For a total of $2.2-billion, Montreal could accommodate not only the UN, but the 192 country missions and a host of linked activist organizations, the city's daily La Presse reported.
The Quebec group was received by Mark Malloch Brown, then UN deputy secretary general, whose known distaste for the Bush administration suggests he provided a sympathetic ear.
Backers of the move argued Montreal's bilingual character made it a perfect fit, given the world body's two "working" languages are English and French. But like so much at the UN, the linguistic profile is an anachronism. Only 32 of the 192 member states ask for correspondence in French only; 140 say they can handle English, while 20 prefer Spanish.
The Quebecers also point to Montreal's low crime rate compared with New York's. But notwithstanding what goes on in some New York neighbourhoods, there aren't many muggings in the back of a Lincoln Town Car, the preferred form of transport for many UN-ers. What's more, almost all the UN's New York buildings are in highly policed parts of Manhattan, itself the most elite borough.
Stalin reportedly agreed to place UN headquarters in the United States because he saw the potential for spying on the host country. While the United States has also been caught eavesdropping on others, the UN's current location provides ideal cover for placing spies inside the world's only remaining superpower.
Few believe that Cuba's massive UN delegation -- with 40 diplomats, it's almost double Canada's -- are all working solely on development issues.
Gotham's nightlife is also a big hit with many diplomats. Where else can you drop almost $130,000 in one night, as a Bangladeshi official did at the high-priced strip joint Scores?
Despite the griping of New Yorkers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made it clear the city wants to keep the UN; the world body and its more than 9,000 accredited diplomats and their families pump in more than $3-billion every year into the local economy.
Quebec's Bachand says last year's presentation was made in response to a "window of opportunity" that now seems to have closed.
While the sum spent on the project was not enormous, there were surely better uses for the money.
) at Chez Paris. 
