Canada had dozens of assurances prior to UN vote

Canada believed it had the support of 150 member nations when it sought a seat on the UN Security Council, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Friday.

Speaking to reporters during a teleconference call, Cannon said that 135 countries gave written assurances and 15 gave verbal assurances that they would vote for Canada.

"The United States was among that group," he said in French, speaking from Brussels, where a NATO meeting was taking place.

Cannon then backtracked, saying that he did not want to "indicate that we did or did not get support from the United States."

Regardless, on the day of the Oct. 12 vote, Canada won only 114 votes in the first round of secret-ballot voting, which was not enough to land a seat. With 128 votes in the same round, Germany was awarded one of the Security Council seats.

A second round of voting saw Canada face a run-off with Portugal. In that round, Canada received only 78 votes compared to 113 for Portugal.

Canada then withdrew its candidacy for the Security Council seat, which then went to Portugal.

It was the first time that Canada failed to win a seat on the Security Council.

Richard Grenell, a former American UN diplomat, has claimed that the U.S. did not actively support Canada's bid to join the Security Council.

When speaking in French on Friday's conference call, Cannon initially said that the U.S. was among the countries that had given a verbal assurance to Canada.

But he backtracked on his remark when answering a follow-up question in English.

"Let me clarify that: I don't want to indicate that we did or did not get support from the United States. I want to make that clear," Cannon said.

"I don't want to go into who supported . . . during the course of that vote. I'll leave it to the individual countries to indicate their position, vis-a-vis that given that it is a secret vote."

Cannon did not offer comment on Grenell's claims that American diplomats were ordered to stay out of Canada's push for a Security Council seat.

There are 15 members of the UN Security Council, of which five are permanent: China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The remaining seats are non-permanent which are assigned to countries for two-year terms.

Canada has held a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council on six previous occasions.

With files from The Canadian Press