bout de papier, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1987) — Spring 1987 // Printemps 1987, p. 9
Jean Drapeau’s recent appointment as Canada’s Ambassador to UNESCO has revived criticisms of numerous such appointments by the Mulroney government. Appointment of the controversial, seventy-year-old politician, talented as he undoubtedly is in the field of municipal affairs, was the last straw.
On October 2nd, 1984, Mulroney wrote: “the standard of professionalism so characteristic of our foreign service will be maintained by my Government and reflected in the diplomatic appointments we will be making.” These regal sounding words were taken to mean the majority of future senior diplomatic appointments would be made from the career foreign service. In fact, Mulroney has ignored this promise.
Since that brave statement fourteen patronage appointments have been made, a number of them to very important Ambassadorial positions. This works out to an average of one every two months. There have never been so many senior political appointees serving at one time in the foreign service, and recently more non-career order-in-council appointments have been made in External Affairs than in any other institution, government agency or department, including the Senate.
The government’s recent decision also to close a number of diplomatic and consular posts for budgetary reasons has worsened matters. Opportunities for career foreign service officers are being cut off at both ends; fewer missions abroad and fewer senior positions available among remaining posts. This has serious affected morale.
If the trend continues unabated, inevitably experienced people will leave for more challenging, rewarding work. The potential damage being done to the foreign service can be likened to damage done to fragile arctic or desert ecologies by another kind of human depredation; the damage done is not always readily apparent and its effects are very long lasting, sometimes even irreparable.
Canada’s foreign service is made up of talented, highly trained men and women, from all walks of life and all parts of Canada, who are required to pass stiff entrance by John Starnes examinations in competition with large numbers of other applicants. During a long career these men and women expect to receive the rough with the smooth; important postings abroad mixed with service in Ottawa, as well as some downright uninteresting, unpleasant, unhealthy and even dangerous postings. This is not the case for the average political appointee. Only the most interesting and desirable for them!
The best political appointees are gifted amateurs. The worst are disasters, sometimes making Canada a laughing-stock. There always should be a place in Canada’s foreign service for talented, non-career persons. However, even the very best political appointees are only birds of passage, their term of office often tied directly to the political fortunes of the Prime Minister who rewarded them. Alas, few of them bequeath much of lasting value to the development of Canada’s foreign policies or the foreign service.
The most charitable explanation of these recent appointments is that the government doesn’t fully understand the long-term consequences of its actions. A less charitable explanation is that, in a rush of Neanderthal reasoning, the government has convinced itself such appointments, made in the interests of the Progressive Conservative narty alan serve the national interest
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1987) — Spring 1987 // Printemps 1987, p. 9. Read the rest of this issue →
