The Honorable Lloyd Axworthy,
Foreign Minister of Canada
Lloyd Axworthy was quite possibly the most influential person in the process of getting the international community to take a true interest in banning landmines. Canada, under Axworthy's direction has become one of the leading proponents of a ban on landmines, and Ottawa has become the site of two extremely influential conferences on banning landmines. Axworthy has pushed reluctant governments and organizations with all the power of his office to make the humanitarian decision on the issue of landmines: to ban them.
Lloyd Axworthy was born in Winnipeg, and grew up in it's "sleepy" community (Wallace 20). Axworthy took part in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s marches in Selma and Birmingham, Alabama, and from there entered politics. He has always been a Democrat and has flirted with Liberalism throughout his career. His push to make Canada a staunch defender of the Ottawa Treaty over the US's clear disapproval has broken new ground in the complex US-Canada relationship, usually weighted in power towards the US. Axworthy has been criticized by some for overestimating Canada's importance in the international community, but his leadership has definitely made a huge impact on the effort to ban APLs (anti-personnel landmines).
	Axworthy's major accomplishment in connection with the ICBL was his influence upon the creation of a treaty to ban landmines. In late 1996 Canada hosted the first Ottawa conference on landmines, a gathering initiated by Axworthy. However, that conference seemed to be going nowhere, and a treaty was still out of sight, when Axworthy decided to issue a challenge to the attending governments: to meet in Ottawa in December of 1997 to sign a treaty banning the use and production of APLs. The challenge was so successful that in December 1997 more than 90 nations came together to sign a landmark agreement that caught the attention of the entire world.
In the United States, advocating for a ban on landmines has not been extremely popular. Our president is against a ban, and public opinion seems to support him in his decision. However, in Canada, with Axworthy's help, support for the anti-landmines campaign is "an astounding 95 percent among Canadians" (Wallace 19). This high margin of approval is one explanation for why Canada has been a leader in the fight. It is a credit to Canadian politicians and to Axworthy in particular that the country is so unified on this issue.
Minister Axworthy has recently started a website devoted to the continuation of the campaign to ban landmines. To visit it click here.
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