awwilliams@watmum.UUCP (Alan Williams) (02/08/86)
In article <690@mprvaxa.UUCP> acton@mprvaxa.UUCP (Don Acton) writes: > > So, our government has decided to make Dennis McDermitt (I hope I have >all the right number of t's and m's etc) an ambassador. To me McDermitt >has always seemed to lack tact, diplomacy and understanding for opposing >viewpoints, qualities it would seem that are essential to an ambassador. >Of course there is also this other matter of his political persuasion >as it doesn't exactly agree with that of our current government's. This appointment is a real mystery to me as well. An ambassador to a country is a bridge between countries, and should be familiar with issues and events in both the country he/she resides, and the country he/she represents. Why can't we find ambassadors from people in the Ministry of External Affairs? These are the people that I would expect to be familiar with both the substance and style of diplomatic affairs. These people keep in touch with events here and abroad. I can't believe that Mr. McDermott has been following Irish affairs on the side, while heading the Canadian Labour Congress. The other rationale I see for an ambassador is a representative of the government of the day. This approach makes some sense in a country like the United States, where an ambassador who is a friend of the President could be expected to hold similar views, and present those views with conviction. I can't see Mr. McDermott representing a Conservative government in this manner. An ambassador still needs some sensitivity to his/her country of residence too though, as the case of Paul Robinson, the recent U.S. ambassador to Canada. The only thing that comes to mind is that Mr. McDermott is presumably a skilled negotiator. If we were in the midst of negotiating a vital treaty with Ireland, this would make some sense. (Maybe Brian Mulroney thinks he can solve the Northern Ireland situation :-)) Otherwise, the appointment just doesn't make sense. If Mr. Mulroney is trying to score political points by appointing someone who is clearly not an avid Conservative party supporter to a fairly important position, while appointing dozens of the party faithful to other jobs, it shouldn't be at the expense of our representatives in other countries. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Williams -- Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waterloo awwilliams@watmum.UUCP awwilliams%watmum@waterloo.CSNET --------------------------------------------------------------------