Paul Wells: It's possible to admire Bob Rae's contribution to Canadian public life and, at the same time, to notice that other countries normally send people with far more diplomatic experience to the UN.
Here are some of the people Rae will work with in New York., Nicolas de Rivière, is 15 years younger than Rae and is a foreign-service lifer who was a senior advisor to two French foreign ministers before beginning his first five-year tour of duty at France’s UN, a stint which culminated with two years as Deputy to the then-ambassador., having been appointed ambassador to Washington in February.
, who like Pierce and de Rivière is a career diplomat who has been a deputy to the ambassador for three years.is 11 years younger than Rae and joined Italy’s foreign service seven years before he was elected premier of Ontario.
When Allan Rock became Canada’s ambassador to the UN in early 2004, I followed Rock’s work there for a while. It’s an infernally complex place. The rule book is as thick as the Manhattan phone directory, and much depends on whom you know. It’s possible to admire Bob Rae’s contribution to Canadian public life and, at the same time, to notice that other countries normally send people with far more diplomatic experience, and far more United Nations experience, than he has.
There are such people in the Canadian foreign service. It’s not a wasteland. They’re the people you sometimes see in a corner of the photo while the latest political appointee is scrumming. They’re permitted to have perfectly decent mid-level careers. Some of them are taking some time off this summer, after Canada’s delegation worked hard to win a Security Council seat. Canada lost to Norway and Ireland. Norway’s and Ireland’s UN ambassadors are both women.
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