Foreign Affairs committee  I'll just say that the report is excellent, in large part because the driving forces behind it, as you know, are the chair and the vice-chair, both of whom are former deputies at foreign affairs. They've put their century of experience together into that report. That's why this

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. At the beginning, I found that everyone worked together to promote Canada's national interests. Over time, I found that politics got in the way every now and then, which is only natural, because that's the way things are. However, I would like to point out that it's very im

Foreign Affairs committee  I think your values inform your interests, and I think sometimes we make a false dichotomy between the two, so I don't get.... I think that becomes a circular argument. Ultimately, your values should inform your interests.

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, I think that Senate report was excellent. Throughout my career, cultural diplomacy, public diplomacy, was a big piece of what we did. It needs to be funded properly, though. As we heard again in this committee, the funding for these programs has been eviscerated and they

Foreign Affairs committee  Of course. I spent most of my career overseas, and on every one of my postings, there was a Quebec delegation. I found that we could work very well together. That was the best way of doing things, because the Quebec delegation could do things that I could not. Together, we were

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, one of the things I know this committee has been debating is, do you do a foreign policy review? What I'd like to see is what we did in the nineties when we had a joint parliamentary committee of the Senate and the House that toured the country looking at our broad foreign

Foreign Affairs committee  No. Years ago, Mr. Pearson's son, Jeff Pearson, was a Canadian diplomat and became our ambassador to the UN and in Moscow. We were having lunch, and we were talking about all the things we were doing. Pearson turned to me and said that what the government of the time had forgot

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that's a pretty comprehensive report, so I would encourage you to look at the recommendations, pick out the ones you think are the most salient, and support them. It all comes down to money in the end, and, in some cases, probably a redeployment of resources. One comme

Foreign Affairs committee  Language is really important. We have made the case. You have to be able to understand and empathize with the cultures. Cutting back language is completely short-sighted, especially in a country like our own, where we have people who can probably do.... This means a whole new lo

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My observations on diplomatic capacity are based on 33 years in Canada's foreign service and 15 years with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. We need diplomatic capacity to advance our objectives internationally. This is hard in a world that is messier