Yushchenko's visit to Canada offers vision of Ukraine's future (06/08/03)

Yushchenko's visit to Canada offers vision of Ukraine's future

by Oksana Zakydalsky
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

TORONTO - Viktor Yushchenko, leader of the political coalition Our Ukraine, came to Canada with a purpose - to acquaint both the Canadian and Ukrainian communities with the current political situation in Ukraine and to show that Our Ukraine is a reformist and democratic body with a vision for the future.

His short but intensive working visit on May 10-17, included stopovers in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. He was invited to Canada by the East West Institute of Canada, a think-tank that promotes change in societies in transition whose current director is Derek Fraser, former Canadian Ambassador to Ukraine.

Mr. Yushchenko arrived with National Deputy Oleh Rybachuk, who has worked as Mr. Yushchenko's assistant since their banking days. Mr. Yushchenko's wife, Kateryna Chymachenko Yushchenko, accompanied her husband and, occasionally, they were joined in public by their two young daughters.

Our Ukraine was formed from an alliance of 10 political parties in January 2002 and received 24.7 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections on March 31, 2002. Since the elections it has been involved with an opposition coalition that includes the Communist Party, Socialist Party and the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc.

At his press conference, Mr. Yushchenko described the purpose of his visit as follows, "Of course, we understand that Ukrainian problems can only be solved by Ukrainians themselves. They will have to make their choice, find within themselves the will and the strength to take the responsibility for changing that which is responsible for the ills of Ukrainian society. But also important to the political processes in Ukraine will be the position of our neighbors and our partners, those with whom we have friendly, traditional and historical ties. It is precisely with such a mission that I have made a number of visits to European countries - Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Baltics - to the U.S.A. and Russia, and now to Canada. I have been describing our position to the current situation in Ukraine and explaining our plans on how to get out of the current quagmire. That is the mission with which I have come to Canada - to meet with members of the government and Parliament, with the business world and the Ukrainian community - in order to build a bridge of understanding."

Summing up, one can say that Mr. Yushchenko came to get what today is called "face time" - to make oneself visible in order to prepare the ground for acceptance as a candidate for president of Ukraine.

Mr. Yushchenko met with several members of provincial Parliaments and provincial cabinet ministers, federal MPs and cabinet ministers, including Bill Graham, minister of foreign affairs, and he had dozens of business meetings.

Among those meetings was one with the president and members of the Ontario Beekeepers Association (Mr. Yushchenko is an amateur beekeper). In Montreal Mr. Yushchenko met with a Ukrainian Canadian Congress delegation headed by President Eugene Czolij; in Ottawa he gave a lecture at the University of Ottawa on Ukraine's foreign relations; and in Toronto he spoke at a well-attended Empire Club luncheon where his talk was titled "Ukraine at the Crossroads: Democracy or Totalitarianism."

"The key question is: What ails Ukraine today? The image of Ukraine is a state with a corrupt government, where freedom of speech does not exist, where there is political harassment and censorship, where the Constitution is ignored. The government today has a 6 percent confidence rating - the lowest level in 12 years. The principal political conflict is not between the government and the opposition, but between the regime and the citizen," he said.

Mr. Yushchenko went on to describe the economic situation - the problem of the "shadowization" of the economy, where close to 40 percent of the economy is underground, widespread poverty, unemployment, a low quality of life where people flee the country, forced to work illegally to survive. He laid the blame for the situation on the regime of President Leonid Kuchma. He pointed out that reform in Ukraine is possible and referred to the success he had as prime minister (from December 1999 to April 2001) with the "Reforms for Prosperity" program. But he was dismissed from his post, he said, "by the president, with the support of the oligarchs and the Communists. The first [group] did not want to lose its huge profits through the liquidation of shadow turnover, the second - its traditional electorate through the raising of the standard of living." He said that the only hope for Ukraine is to consolidate the reform and democratic forces and to get rid of the present corrupt regime.

Although the concerns raised by Mr. Yushchenko were not new to people who have been following the events in Ukraine in the last few years, his sharp criticism of the Kuchma administration and uncompromising stand on the need for regime change, were not entirely expected. Mr. Yushchenko's reputation, which preceded him, was one of a person who was not 100 percent certain of his position as the "leader of the opposition." After his public appearances in Canada, there is no doubt that the "Yushchenko for President" campaign is now in full swing.

The high point of Mr. Yushchenko's visit to Toronto was to be a banquet organized by the UCC and the UCC Toronto Branch and attended by over 1,000 people. The head table included members of the Canadian political elite in Toronto, headed by Premier of Ontario Ernie Eves (who is as the guests learned, of Ukrainian heritage), as well as federal cabinet ministers Sheila Copps and Eugene Augustine, Sen. A. Raynell Andreychuk, and City Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby.

As well, there were many friends-of-Ukrainians politicians among the crowd as there is a mayoral race on in Toronto, a provincial election around the corner and a federal "regime change" coming soon. In all, it showed that the Ukrainian community in Canada's largest city is well integrated into the larger Canadian society and influential in political processes at all levels.

Although the festivities began at 6 p.m. it was not until 10 p.m. that Mr. Yushchenko was allowed to give his keynote address (he took it in good humor - "what am I to say, as everything has already been said and people are still talking?" - he asked when he finally got up to speak).

The politicians who spoke were somewhat rambling, and there was excess verbosity from people who introduced them. Greetings from various Ukrainian organizations - which could have been left to next day's lunch, specifically organized for Mr. Yushchenko's meeting with the Ukrainian community - also took up a chunk of time.

The evening proceedings were further lengthened by the fact that many of the speeches, as well as the emceeing, were in two languages. However, there was no English translation provided for Mr. Yushchenko's keynote address, which was delivered in Ukrainian. For the duration of Mr. Yushchenko's speech, which went over 30 minutes many of the guests at the head table sat uncomprehending and stonefaced, staring over the somewhat embarrassed crowd.

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