PING!
Posted on 02/26/2006 10:04:14 AM PST by GMMAC
Wilsonian diplomacy
OTTAWA SUN
February 26, 2006
By Greg Weston
Back in 1991, in the days of Brian Mulroney’s government, then Conservative trade minister Michael Wilson summoned reporters to explain why Canada was tearing up a softwood lumber agreement with the U.S. governing billions of dollars a year of Canadian timber exports.
The bilateral agreement, Wilson said, had “served its purpose — it ended a bitter and highly politicized trade dispute.”
Not exactly. Fifteen years later, Wilson is about to join several generations of newly appointed Canadian ambassadors to the U.S. who have arrived in Washington with a diplomatic to-do list topped by the same intractable lumber disputes.
Turns out shredding the old bilateral deal may not have been such a bright idea after all. But maybe Wilson and his new boss, Stephen Harper, will have better luck this time. Word in official circles is that Paul Martin’s administration left behind a draft deal that could finally end U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood products, which the Americans claim are unfairly subsidized by provincial governments.
We caught up with Canada’s soon-to-be new man in Washington late last week.
Cautious by nature, Wilson wisely isn’t planning any victory party on the softwood file just yet. Far from it.
“I know from past experience this is a complex issue — the devil’s very much in the detail — and things happen that can change in the American position and the Canadian one,” Wilson said in a wide-ranging interview.
In fact, the biggest problem may be that “the Canadian position is not a single position. There are a range of views — various provinces and industry have different points of view.”
Damaging trade dispute
How Canadian — we can’t get an agreement with the Americans to end a damaging trade dispute because we can’t get an agreement among ourselves.
Whatever happens (or doesn’t) in the endless war over sticks and stumps, Wilson is an inspired choice to be Canada’s voice in the U.S. capital. (This should not be confused with his being an inspirational voice — on the contrary, between the new PM and new ambassador, Washington is in for a blast of northern drab. Heck, one of Harper’s favourite self-deprecating jokes is that he learned his charisma from Mike Wilson.)
After a lifetime on Bay Street, interrupted by nine years in the most senior ranks of the Mulroney cabinet — six as finance minister and three in industry and trade — the man we knew in politics as “Honest Mike” is certainly at ease wandering the halls of both domestic and international power.
He is also strategically positioned to help fix much of what ails Canada-U.S. relations — namely, the soured relations with the American administration caused by so much mindless Yankee-bashing during the previous Liberal government.
As Wilson says with characteristic understatement: “I think it’s important that there’s a political interlocutor representing the government because there have been problems at the political level.”
Diplomacy is a game of nuance, and Wilson will arrive in Washington with the most important sign of power and influence — a rare pipeline straight to the prime minister.
Peter MacKay may be the new Foreign Affairs minister and technically Wilson’s political boss, but there is little doubt that Harper plans to be personally and directly engaged with his most important ambassador. (At the official photo op of the three men meeting in Harper’s office, MacKay was apparently out the door minutes after the photographers left.)
Asked if he will have direct access to the PM, Wilson had no hesitation: “Absolutely. We have agreed we’ll talk on a weekly basis. The prime minister knows he’s got to be front and centre, starting with his relationship he has with the president. He is keen to make this a positive relationship.”
One of the most important and generally overlooked attributes Wilson brings to his new post is his age. At 68, the job is not a stepping stone to some other position, a fact that will allow him to speak his mind openly to Harper and the bureaucracy without having to fear for his future prospects.
Special weapon
Finally, a special weapon Wilson takes to Washington is the private phone number of his old boss, Mulroney. The former PM’s name is a force of its own in high places south of the border, and opens doors all the way up to the Bush White House.
By pure coincidence, Mulroney just happened to mention the U.S. ambassador’s job to his old finance minister during a phone conversation after the election and — poof! — a week later, it just happened.
“It really had not crossed my mind,” Wilson said. “I was quite content at what I was doing.”
Whatever convinced Wilson to re-enter public life, Canada will be well served by our new man in Washington.
PING!
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, left,
holds a meeting with Canada's new ambassador
to the U.S. Michael Wilson, at Harper's office on
Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2006.
Wilson says solving the softwood lumber dispute with
the U.S. will be his top priority.(AP Photo/CP,Fred Chartrand)
Welcome back Honest Mike!
It's nice to see that the adults are back in charge in Ottawa!
I predict good things coming in U.S./Canada relations.
BTTT
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