2 July 2005
Ross T. Runfola
O (poor) Canada
Despite the existence since 1980 of legislation forbidding campaign contributions as a factor in the selection of ambassadors, all US presidents for the past 25 years have appointed wealthy campaign contributors to diplomatic positions—but none so extensively as George W. Bush.There is an urgent need for the retention of career diplomats or the appointment of seasoned foreign policy experts at a time the image of the United States has been tarnished in the world by Bush’s bellicosity. Instead, he is feeding at the ambassador trough all the pigs who have contributed or raised more than $200,000 for the Republican Party. Georg Mascolo, in the German publication Der Spiegel, traces as of June 27, 2005, thirty of the Republican Party’s biggest donors being rewarded with diplomatic posts.
The Bush ambassadors are largely bereft of any knowledge of the language of the foreign country to which they are assigned. It would appear on the surface that David Wilkins, the new ambassador to Canada, would not have this problem . That is unless you listened to a CBC news interview prior to his formal appointment, where his waxing and waning South Carolina drawl was barely understandable to the Canadian broadcaster.
More embarrassing was how little he knew about Canada. When asked if he ever had been to there, the Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives hemmed and hawed, and, after an uncomfortable silence said once in his life about 34 years ago when he went someplace where there was a lot of water – then quickly mentioned Niagara Falls. Wilkins also mentioned Indiana, but then said it couldn’t have been Indiana because Indiana isn’t in Canada but it was north of Indiana. When Wilkins was asked if he knew where maple syrup came from and if he could hum a few bars of O Canada. Wilkins said he would not answer any more questions until he was confirmed as ambassador.Wilkins is no southern hick, he is a trained Bush attack dog, who helped craft the racist South Carolina strategy which scuttled the 2000 Presidential campaign of Senator John McCain. Over the years he has become deeply involved with the entire Bush family, most often as a key organizer and fundraiser in the South. He is also a close friend of the president’s father, George H.W. Bush. So sure was he of how close he is to the center of power that he knew he could afford to turn down the ambassador’s job in Chile and an offer of an appointment to the Federal Court before accepting the Canadian designation.
The new ambassador to Canada showed a lack of cultural sensitivity, and created a media frenzy in Canada when he announced his appointment is a “sign of God.” The State Department immediately flew in Canadian and American experts who were familiar with the strained relations between the two countries and, as is usual, sent him to a day-long ambassador’s school. A clear sign that the State Department was concerned came when they announced that Wilkins would not answer any questions of substance . You know, like "In what Canadian city do the Toronto Maple Leafs play?" All Canadian television crews were barred from the Washington swearing-in ceremony and the news conference that followed. Only a friendly local South Carolina TV station was granted access.
Given this comedy of errors, was there another reason Bush appointed Wilkins as Ambassador to Canada? Was Bush giving his finger to our neighbors to the North for not supporting the war in Iraq? A clue is offered by the fact that Wilkins did not have any interest in Canada until his appointment other than his desire to have high tariffs on the importation of Canadian softwood lumber, 65 % of which is exported to the US. South Carolina, it should be noted, is a major lumber state. Shortly after taking his oath of office, in a ceremony in Washington, D.C. , Ambassador Wilkins was not folksy when he suggested that the proposed law that will require Canadians to show their passports in 2008 may be phased in earlier.
CBC news did not seem to be too concerned about these early problems with Wilkins since in the end, like all diplomats from the US, it found the new ambassador will merely be a messenger, and not, a framer of US-Canadian relations, which may just be the “sign of God” the confused Wilkins is looking for as he wanders aimlessly in Ottowa.
Copyright 2005 by Buffalo Report, Inc.