Liebnitz at the Doors of Perception
Liebnitz set his tankard down. “They say, if you can remember the 60s, you were never really there. The trouble with my brother Leo is that he fell head-first into 1968 and has yet to come up.” He gazed with rueful fondness…
Our Travels with Monty
The crazy things people will do for their pets is a truism that reaches new heights of absurdity for Foreign Service officers overseas. confess not to have undertaken any persuasive research to support that contention that would withstand scrutiny by even a…
Canada’s Diplomatic Spouses and the Debt We Owe Them
Prior to departing for Egypt in 1976, was given letters of introduction to a number of prominent personalities by R.A.D. Ford and his wife Thereza, friends of my parents. They were in the latter stages of a 16-year tenure in Moscow and…
Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged and Changed a Nation
Richard Bedford Bennett, who served as Canada’s 11th prime minister from 1930 to 1935, was savaged by the unemployed and destitute during the grimmest years of the Great Depression. They denounced him as uncaring, unthinking and undemocratic, and the labels stuck. For…
Obama’s Wars
Bob Woodward is no stranger to anyone intrigued or fascinated by the American political process. Since he entered the world’s consciousness in 1972 with his riveting account of the Watergate scandal in All the President’s Men, he has produced on average a…
The Great Dominion: Churchill and Canada, 1900–1954
Note de la rédaction : Dans le second article de la série sur Churchill et le Canada, 1900-1954, David Bilks, professeur émérite de relations internationales a la University of Leeds, achève son tableau d’une relation très spéciale. Il documente l’extraordinaire appui du…
Canada, China and Charles Maxwell Forsyth-Smith
My cousin Max Forsyth-Smith died in December 2008. The Halifax Chronicle carried a brief account of his distinguished career with the Trade Commissioner Service. He was a descendent of Nathaniel Guy, a participant in Britain’s conquest of Jamaica in 1626, whose heirs,…
Better Thistles than Wolves?
In the last issue of bout de papier, we paid tribute to one of our most distinguished and beloved former diplomats, Arthur Menzies, who passed away in early March. One of his least-known diplomatic involvements came during his posting to Japan in…
Canada’s FOCAL: Focussing Minds on the Americas
Editor’s note: Our interview with Kathryn Hewlett-Jobes of FOCAL is the third in a series on Canadian organizations that strengthen Canada’s global and regional presence (the first dealt with the IDRC, the second with the Canadian International Council). The challenges in doing…
Habits of Hospitality: La genèse du Bureau du protocole
bout de papier is pleased to adapt and reprint an extract from Habits of Hospitality: A Short History of the Origins of the Protocol Division by Fred McEvoy, an Ottawa-based historian and writer, and Greg Donaghy, the Head of the Historical Section…
