Canada and the Commonwealth

Founded in 1931, the Commonwealth is a 53-member intergovernmental multilateral organization of countries with historical constitutional links to the United Kingdom.  Its membership includes countries from Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean.  Its program is dominated by a system of intergovernmental meetings with a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) every two years and many regular sectoral ministerial meetings. Foreign Ministers meet in September on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly and before CHOGMs. There also are regular meetings for finance, justice, gender, environment and sports ministers among many others. These meetings provide Canadian political leaders opportunities to become acquainted with colleagues from other Commonwealth countries, and to advance Canada's relationships and interests on a wide variety of issues. A secretariat led by a Secretary General, currently former Indian diplomat Kamalesh Sharma, supports the intergovernmental meetings and operates a technical assistance program related to conflict prevention and building support for democratic processes and human rights.

Prime Minister Harper attended his first CHOGM in Kampala, Uganda in November 2007. The next CHOGM will take place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in November 2009.

Canada's Financial Contributions to the Commonwealth

Canada is the Commonwealth's second largest contributor providing 19.07% or approximately $5.83 million to the regular secretariat budget, and $13 million to the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC) in 2007/08. Canada is also the second largest contributor to the Commonwealth Foundation, a separate outreach organization to civil society, and the Commonwealth Youth Program. In addition, Canada contributes to the Commonwealth of Learning ($2.6 million in 2007/08), a separate, Vancouver- based intergovernmental organization which provides "distance-learning" services to Commonwealth countries. Canada also contributed $5 million for 2007/08 to the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan.

Visit the Commonwealth site for a complete list of members.