Frank McKenna, ambassador to the US

[fracan]

I saw his interview today on Newsworld's Politics. Apparently his job is to talk to Americans about Canada and explain our point of view. He seemed like an OK dude... But:

Is it just me, or could we not find better people to do that? Americans love celebrities... Canadians basically run Hollywood. Couldn't we round up all the Canadian celebs and get them to pump up Canada to our American cousins? Wouldn't that be a better way to spend our Canada-advocating dollars?

[mcqueen625]

He seemed like an OK dude... But:

Exactly; But... I am from New Brunswick and we spent 10 years with Frank as our Premier. During that time he downgraded both health care, education spending to the lowest level in years raised taxes and fees and implemented many fees we never had before. Basically he caused us to be heavily taxed and are receiving less services for those taxes. Let me tell we are certainly not better off as a Province for having him as our Premier. I consider him to be one of the worst we ever had, next to the PC Premier, Bernard Lord. It is a toss-up who has done the most damage, because neither wished to listen to the wishes of the people. They both had their own agendas going in and set about implementing those agendas regardless of the concerns of the people. This appointment is simply a partisan reward for faithful service to the Liberal Party.

[Pateris]

mcqueen,

Would you have had McKenna as premier continue the silly policy of borrowing ridiculous amounts of money to pay for services you couldn't afford until the province was bankrupt?

[Newfie Canadian]

Anyone who can get Newt Gingrich to admit that he was wrong and apologize for it is OK with me.

Having said that, Newt was totally wrong.

But good on Frank for calling him on it.

[fellowtraveller]

I also saw the McKenna interview, it was totally bland.

I see it as one of his first campaign speeches for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. It's the perfect podium, prominent but outside the fray.

Pretending that anybody gives a crap about Canada outside Canada, which McKenna will continue to do from Washington, plays perfectly to many folks at home who haven't a clue about US-Canada dynamics. This is a fact that Frank knows very very well. It is why he took the job.