Latest Bush appointment: Canadian ambassador

Continuing in the by-now-classic vein of other Bush appointments, Bush’s envoy can actually find Canada (Globe and Mail) tells of the man slated to make nice with Canada for the next several years. The article, published in Canada’s biggest paper, sardonically points out the one good thing about him before going on to describe just how little he’s actually been to Canada.

“Mr. Wilkins’ only trip to Canada was to Niagara Falls, Ont., over a long weekend in the early 1970s while he was posted in Indiana with the U.S. Army.”

It turns out he’s a “veteran South Carolina politician”, who has almost no clue whatsoever what Canada is all about, but who is “reading, I’m learning and I’m absorbing as much as I possibly can”.

Excellent. There’s nothing like being prepared for your job. Of course, some would have simply chosen someone who’s spent their entire lives working with the country, someone who perhaps can even speak French. That kind of cuts down on the whole “get caught up to what the f___ is going on” part of the process. Just to be fair, though, the Bush administration isn’t the first one to select a Canadian envoy quite far from Canada itself: Clinton’s envoy was from Atlanta and also “had to study … had to learn, … had to work hard” in order to do the job. It’s so refreshing to see such hard-working people able to take advantage of the political patronage that falls into their laps.

Naturally, Bush and/or his handlers aren’t interested in a constructive dialog with Canada and have chosen this path as the diplomatic alternative to actually spitting in each and every Canadian’s face. I mean, who’s got that kind of time?