bout de papier, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1987) — Spring 1987 // Printemps 1987, pp. 9–11
The column devoted to gleanings from the press and parliament on items of interest to the foreign service that one would not find in the Press Scan.
The appointment of pals and cronies to diplomatic posts continues unabated. As of April 1, the Mulroney government had made as many political appointments to head of post assignments as Pierre Trudeau…but it took him sixteen years. Only Mackenzie King made more and that took 22 years. The Drapeau appointment received much publicity, none of it favourable. It was also the subject of debate in the Senate.
Whatever his past achievements, Jean Drapeau is wholly unfit to be Canada’s Ambassador to UNESCO. His appointment ranks with the worst of Prime Minister Mulroney’s patronage excesses…. The Canadian foreign service has maintained an admirably high quality over the years, despite the troubles of budget-cutting and reorganization. It has done this largely because it recruits carefully and demands professional performance. Mulroney has endangered that valuable public asset by turning some of the best ambassadorships into jobs for the boys. His appointment of Drapeau might appeal to the thick-shouldered, well-moneyed campaign experts in Drapeau’s Civic Party, men who might help Montreal Tories in the next election. To the country Mulroney has done a shameful disservice.
Plum for Drapeau insult to External, editorial in the Ottawa Citizen Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is loading Canada’s plum foreign positions with his pals, while demoralizing Canada’s well-respected foreign service. To even obtain employment in the foreign service, you have to be bright and well-informed about national and international events. This year, 5,000 Canadians wrote the foreign service exams. Less than 100 will be selected. They might well wonder if it’s worth it. During Mulroney’s two years in office, 14 choice foreign positions have gone to his friends. For them, there’s no toughing it out in Zaire…
PM’s plums-for-pals policy sours the foreign service, Vicki Barnett, columnist for the Calgary Herald
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is courting a civil service revolt by stuffing Canada’s top diplomatic posts with political cronies and people he likes…
Patronage gets to go abroad, Greg
Barthos in the Toronto Star
Une giffle magistrale à la carrière diplomatique, un soufflet personnel à l’actuel ambassadeur auprès de l’UNESCO, un coup d’épée dans l’eau en ce qui concerne le poids politique du geste: telles sont les conclusions sommaires et brutales qu’appelle la nomination de M. Jean Drapeau au poste de représentant permanent du Canada auprès de l’UNESCO, à Paris.
Une nomination mal venue, Paul-André
Comeau dans Le Devoir
Every time the Prime Minister plucks someone off the streets, so to speak, to fill a plum diplomatic post, the morale at the External Affairs department takes another sharp dip… There was a time in our foreign service when career paths led to the ultimate rank of ambassador. All it took was a reasonable ability, dedication and a willingness to take some hardship postings along the way.
Diplomatic appointments: is nothing sacred? by Stewart MacLeod in St. John’s
Evening Telegram
Political appointments to plum diplomatic postings have become a scandal…. While not denying the government’s right from time to time to recruit ambassadors from outside the foreign service, PAFSO says the use of amateur diplomats should be sparing. It is hard to quarrel with that viewpoint. It is impossible to see how Canada’s best interests are served by an unhappy and demoralized foreign service.
Patronage hurts foreign service in Winnipeg Free Press
It took a long time for Canada’s diplomats to speak out against Prime Minister Mulroney’s increasing practise of making patronage appointments to foreign service diplomatic posts. But they have finally taken the plunge – and a good thing, too. They’ve called attention to an abuse that Canadians should know more about.
John Best in The Regina Leader Post
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
FOREIGN SERVICE APPOINTMENTS — MAINTENANCE OF PROFESSIONALISM
– GOVERNMENT POLICY
Hon. Allan J. MacEachen (Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, I should like to raise a question based upon the matter of professionalism in the Foreign Service of Canada. With the recent appointment of former Mayor Drapeau to UNESCO in Paris, the present government will have appointed a total of 14 non-
10 bout de papier Vol. career persons to the Foreign Service of Canada – a move without precedent in the history of this country. Has the government abandoned the concept of maintaining the professional foreign service which has served Canada so well and which has been so highly commended to the government in the recent report of the joint committee?
Hon. Lowell Murray (Leader of the Government and Minister of State for Federal- Provincial Relations): Honourable senators, the government has looked other than to the Department of External Affairs in 13 or 14 cases out of I do not know how many nominations. That that should be interpreted as meaning that the government had abandoned the concept of a professional diplomatic service is surely an exaggerated and alarmist point of view.
With regard to the employment of former Mayor Drapeau, I hope that the Honourable Leader of the Opposition would acknowledge that Mr. Jean Drapeau is, on the international scene – and deservedly so – one of the most renowned to present day Canadians.
Senator MacEachen: Honourable senators, I have no intention of debating the capabilities of former Mayor Drapeau, for whom I have the greatest admiration. What I am concerned about is professionalism in the foreign service. No matter what the Leader of the Government may think, the Prime Minister, prior to the election, assured the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers in Canada that he would continue the tradition of maintaining a professional foreign service; that is, the maintenance of a foreign service composed of persons who have spent their lives working in the field of international affairs. That is what professionalism means. Obviously, former Prime Ministers have taken a view totally different from that of the present Prime Minister, because in the first two years of his mandate he has appointed 14 non-career persons to the foreign service.
The Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers described this as patronage. I am not using that description, but I am concerned about the departure from the system followed by every former Prime Minister. In the 16 years of Mr. Trudeau’s prime ministership, for example, 16 non-career persons were appointed to the foreign service, which amounts to one per year. In two years the present Prime Minister has made 14 such appointments. I could go on. In all the years that Mr. Diefenbaker was Prime Minister, he appointed two or three non-career persons; in the five years that Mr. Bennett was Prime Minister, he appointed two or three; Mr. St. Laurent likewise, Mr. Clark likewise.
I think that we are entitled to ask – and if it is the declared policy of the government we ought to know about it — is it now the intention of the government to fill diplomatic posts abroad through the appointment of persons outside the professional stream in our public service? If that is the intention, let us know about it. But to argue that it has not happened is, in my view, a travesty of the facts.
Senator Murray: Honourable senators, the fact remains that the preponderant, overwhelming majority of those who hold ambassadorial rank in this country are people who have grown up in the Foreign Service of Canada. We have brought to ambassadorial positions people such as Stephen Lewis, David MacDonald and others, who, I think, bring an important and different perspective to their jobs and who are an adornment to the public service and the foreign service of this country.
Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!
Senator MacEachen: Honourable senators, it is a fact that in the career of every former Prime Minister, the preponderance of ambassadorial positions was filled by professional career diplomats and foreign service officers. None of them felt it was desirable to depart from that system in the outrageous way in which the present Prime Minister has, while at the same time asserting – I think hypocritically and falsely – to the professional foreign service officers that he is dedicated to filling these positions in a professional way. To argue that every appointment is that of a person with career and professional abilities in the foreign service is outrageous. That is not the case.
It is true that from time to time former Prime Ministers have found it necessary to select a number of individuals to serve in important diplomatic positions, and I think that that should be continued
Hon. Jacques Flynn: The number is much higher than what you said for Mr. Trudeau. He made more than 14 appointments.
Senator MacEachen: He appointed 16 nonprofessional career persons-
Senator Flynn: I disagree.
Senator MacEachen: — to the diplomatic service in 16 years; one per yer.
[Senator MacEachen.]
Senator Flynn: No!
Senator MacEachen: If Senator Flynn wants a few more facts, I can provide them. In the many years that Mr. King was Prime Minister, he appointed 17 such non-career persons.
Senator Flynn: When he started, there was no Department of External Affairs.
Senator MacEachen: Canada received the power to appoint its own diplomats in 1926, and it is upon the time following that date that the statistics are based. Mr. King made 17 such appointments in all the years he was Prime Minister; Mr. Bennett was Prime Minister for five years and he made two such appointments; Mr. St. Laurent was Prime Minister for eight years and he made four such appointments.
Senator Flynn: I do not know where you got those figures, but—
Senator MacEachen: Well, I will tell you where I got them.
Senator Frith: Then you can find out where Senator Flynn got his.
Senator MacEachen: If Senator Flynn has opposing figures, then he had better produce them. Mr. Pearson, in the years he was Prime Minister, appointed four.
Senator Balfour: How many did Mr. Turner appoint?
Senator MacEachen: Mr. Turner appointed three, all of whom were rescinded by his gracious successor who, reviling the practice of patronage by rescinding these three appointments, then proceeded to make an unprecedented 14 appointments of non-professionals at the highest possible level.
I think all the facts impel me to ask the government whether it has abandoned the notion of a Canadian professional foreign service, that is all. If it has, tell us and we will debate that. But do not say that the government still believes in the professional foreign service while, at the same time, it appoints such noted diplomats as Dennis McDermott.
Senator Murray: I thought the name would come up. I was waiting for it.
Senator Frith: We wouldn’t disappoint you, senator.
Senator Murray: Our ambassador in Dublin continues to rankle the Leader of the Opposition, and I know how much he admires Jean Drapeau.
Senator MacEachen: I could mention a couple of Tories who are equally outrageous.
Senator Murray: Honourable senators, let me say once again that the vast, preponderant, overwhelming majority of the ambassadorial positions filled by this government have been filled from within the public service, from within the foreign service, and that we remain committed to doing that. We have, as I have said, appointed excellent people from outside the foreign service to important foreign posts, and I do not preclude the possibility that we will do that again when it is in the national interest to do so.
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Senator MacEachen: The Leader of the Government is on very weak ground, as he well knows. He is on very weak ground because all he can say is, “We intend to appoint, as has been done in the past, a majority of persons from the foreign service itself.” We all know that. Every other Prime Minister was faced with the same reality and continued the practice of maintaining a professional foreign service. The present Prime Minister had abandoned that practice and has appointed an unprecedented number of persons who are not career diplomats, who are not professionals, and I just ask: Why does not the government tell us the policy which it is following and not speak out of two sides of its mouth – a practice which is becoming increasingly under attack throughout the country?
The Leader of the Government knows that his response is inadequate, but he continues making it. Like so many attitudes taken by the government, it is not a credible attitude. If it is your decision to change the composition of the foreign service, tell us that — that’s all; but if it is not your intention, then why proceed to do it at all, let alone in such a totally misguided way?
From Senate Debates, December 17, 1986 ilin & Sons
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Originally published in / Publié à l’origine dans bout de papier, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1987) — Spring 1987 // Printemps 1987, pp. 9–11. Read the rest of this issue / Lire le reste de ce numéro →
