Canadian Polemic

We all know that Paul Martin likes to take his time in making decisions, and the appointment of Frank McKenna to be Canada's new Ambassador to the United States was no exception. I wasn't sure about McKenna at first, but you have to give the PM credit for breaking a bit with tradition. Sure, he's a Liberal and no doubt close to Mr Martin - but he's no career diplomat. He's a politician, through and through. It could have gone wonderfully or just atrociously.

I, for one, am very impressed - I think that it's much closer to the former than the latter. I think that McKenna is doing a bang-up job in Washington representing Canada. He's being aggressive in promoting our country's interests but without being abrasive, which is just what we need. Washington is a busy place, and while I do see all the merits of quiet diplomacy, I'm not sure if it's the place for it. He's also being innovative and going outside the diplomatic box, which is also proving useful.

See McKenna's newest initiative, called Connect 2 Canada. The mission? Create a network throughout the United States of Canadian expats, armed with facts about bilateral relations and cross-border commerce. It's not an exclusively original idea on McKenna's part, but it should prove to be very useful in terms of advancing our agenda south of the border.

So kudos to McKenna on a job very well done so far - he's proved his critics wrong and played a big role in turning the Canado-American relationship around. I hope that he keeps it up in the future, and who knows? Perhaps someday we may see his name on a slate for candidates for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.