Preston Manning

Originally uploaded by Will_Tom.

A recent comment on Peace order and Good Government got me to thinking on ambassadors, elections and so forth. Although I do not have a link for you yet on this rumor, Preston Manning, the patriarch of reform style conservatism in Canada, may be appointed as ambassador of Canada to the USA. The afore mentioned quote:

Och, weel: given the ambassadors that the Americans send us, I suppose Preston is more than a fair trade.

It is as clear to me as it is to Frank McKenna that Canada needs a new man in Mordor. This Liberal big whig is in the running (perhaps) to be the next Lib chief. Who then?

Oh I know! Preston Manning! I can see this working, really I can, With the Tories in Ottawa and the #$@@%&%*)! in Washington, a plaid shirt wearin’, cattle brandin’, true believin Albertexian just might fit the bill. I can see the logic but still, this is not my choice. I dissagree with him on most things but Preston is scholarly and thoughtful, faithful and clean living. Still he is not the man for the job.

In a way, I feel that an ambassador should not just be a representative for a people but a representative of a people. Canada’s ambassador in Washington should be polite but have a ’smug self satisfaction’ that we Canadians often have when dealing with our southern neighbours. He needs to be well versed in the politics in the world and their root causes. She needs to care deeply for the rights of people oppressed and suffering.

It is because of these two last points that our ambassador in Washington, to be a true representative of the Canadian people, must harbour a deep and righteous hatred of the American political establishment, all of their entrenched values and presuppositions and an opponent of almost all they are trying to accomplish in the world today. I propose a different ambassador. One whose views are clearly more those of Canadians writ large. I propose Svend Robinson for ambassador to the US.

He could bring his husband and Marc Emery could be their press secretary. They would bring cocoa and give speeches with the parents of the war dead protesting against the war. The whole thing is prodigiously Canadian. Any MP that got beat up by the Israeli military gets my vote, for ambassador or otherwise.

Really though, the Grand Ambassadorship should be one of the posts of merit and of good fit. Ohh. Imagine Conrad Black. Hey buddy, here is yer get-out-of-jail-with-diplomatic-immunity-free card. Thanks for all of the good press and the consolidation of the national media etc. More seriously though, I could see David Frum for example or former Tory PM Kim Campbell. Campbell was a consul general for California in recent years. This post would perhaps be a reasonable promotion.

Keep the ideologues out. It only encourages them.