New Envoy an Insult: Hartley Steward not happy with the U.S. ambassador

The Toronto Sun ^ | July 3, 2005 | Hartley Steward

[quidnunc]

• The week began with almost a million people on hand in the sweltering heat for the 25th annual gay pride parade in downtown Toronto, touted by one participant as "the gayest city in North America." Some 80,000 people reportedly participated in the event, more than 900,000 watched. Toronto's mayor and chief of police, who walked proudly side by side, were testimony to just how far this celebration has come since 1981, when a mere 80 brave souls marched and nobody watched.

If you still have trouble with it, get over it. On Tuesday, Canada became the third country in the world to make same-sex marriages legal. The historic vote, after a decade of acrimonious debate, was 158-133. Count on 2 million at the parade next year.

• The new U.S. ambassador to Canada, South Carolina politician and big-league bagman for President George W. Bush, David Wilkins, took up his post last week, presenting his meagre credentials to the governor general on Wednesday. This is his second visit to Canada, the last time being a short trip in 1971.

Wilkins admits he knows little about Canada and Canada/U.S. issues, but he's anxious to learn. Feel free to be insulted as a Canadian.

-snip-

[quidnunc]

Well, at least we didn't send some wino scooped up off the street in Muncie, Indiana as ambassador, which is what they deserve.

[satchmodog9]

Meager credentials, what the hell does that mean.

[Jeff Head]

The decadence is shocking in its magnitude...and they desperately want, both in Canada and those so involved here...to brng it full vore (so to speak) onto our shores.

God help us avoid it...and give us the strength to continue to stand firm against it.

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."- John Adams, Oct. 11, 1798

[Jeff Head]

The decadence is shocking in its magnitude...and they desperately want, both in Canada and those so involved here...to bring it full bore (so to speak) onto our shores.

God help us avoid it...and give us the strength to continue to stand firm against it.

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."- John Adams, Oct. 11, 1798

[FreedomPoster]

He isn't a State Department career bureaucrat, so he really might be able to get the President's ear. But of course, the ever-so-diplomatic Canadian press insults him for that.

[de Buillion]

"Toronto, touted by one participant as "the gayest city in North America."

That participant ain't never been to AUSTIN, TX.

[RichInOC]

If you still have trouble with it, get over it.

Trouble? Trouble? Who said they had trouble with it? I didn't say I had trouble with it. I didn't say a thing.

...

...ohhhhhhhhh, I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay,
I sleep all night and I work all day.
(Oh, he's a lumberjack and he's okay,
He sleeps all night and he works all day...)

[SmithL]

Feel free to be insulted as a Canadian.

Works foe Me!

[satchmodog9]

Yes, unless you are a career diplomat from a family of diplomats, you have no credibility to the left. I bet David Wilkins knows how to spell meager unlike the author of this piece.

[thoughtomator]

If they're insulted, we should withdraw our ambassador, and they can make their requests by mail.

[ccmay]

If I were Bush I'd send a braying jackass as ambassador and turn him loose on the streets of Toronto.

-ccm

[jec41]

Wilkins admits he knows little about Canada and Canada/U.S. issues, but he's anxious to learn. Feel free to be insulted as a Canadian.

Absolutely no one could insult a Canadian more than they have insulted themselves!!!!!!!

[thoughtomator]

I think Howard Dean is already employed.

[Always A Marine]

"...David Wilkins, took up his post last week, presenting his meagre credentials to the governor general on Wednesday..."

Ambassador Wilkins is the personal representative of the President of the United States of America. If anything is meager in this relationship, it is that freeloading socialist entity which rides comfortably on our shoulders.

[Howlin]

David Wilkins: America's next ambassador to Canada
CBC News Online | June 22, 2005

David Wilkins, left, shown with U.S. President George W. Bush in the South Carolina legislature, April 18, 2005. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

David Wilkins is a politician and lawyer from Greenville, S.C., and he's U.S. President George W. Bush's pick to be the next American ambassador to Canada.

CBC correspondent Henry Champ describes Wilkins as a conservative, both fiscally and socially. Wilkins was a Republican fundraiser in the presidential campaigns of both George W. Bush and his father, George H. W. Bush.

Since 1994, he has served as Speaker in the South Carolina legislature. He's also a lawyer in the firm of Wilkins & Madden.

Oct. 12, 1946:
David Horton Wilkins is born.

1968:
Graduates from Clemson University in South Carolina.

1971:
Receives a law degree from the University of South Carolina.

1971-1976:
Serves as a first lieutenant in the U.S. army and army reserve. It is during this time that Wilkins makes his first and only visit to Canada.

1981:
First elected to the South Carolina legislature.

1992:
Elected house Speaker pro tempore in the South Carolina legislature.

1994:
Republicans take over the South Carolina house and Wilkins is elected Speaker, a position he would hold until 2005.

2001:
Senator Strom Thurmond offers Wilkins a federal district judgeship. President Bush approaches Wilkins to be ambassador to Chile. In both cases, Wilkins says he wishes to finish the legislative session in South Carolina.

2004:
Serves as chairman of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in South Carolina.

2005:
In a ceremony is Washington, D.C., Wilkins is sworn in as the new U.S. ambassador to Canada, following Bush's nomination.

[jec41]

Canada? Where is that? Must be some county in Mass.

[citizencon]

Heard Pres. Bush's first choice was his dog Spot.

[ONETWOONE]

Mee two.

[albee]

"...• The new U.S. ambassador to Canada, South Carolina politician and big-league bagman for President George W. Bush, David Wilkins, took up his post last week, presenting his meagre credentials to the governor general on Wednesday. This is his second visit to Canada...

Why should we send someone important to a country that is not?

[claudiustg]

---If you still have trouble with it, get over it. ---

The voice of Democracy.