John Baird, vizier in the court of King Stephen
We generally don’t speak ill of the dead. Or of politicians who have the good sense to quit before being thrown out by the electorate. John Baird is being serenaded out, with the opposition joining in tossing petals.
He himself is full of self-serving smugness — how he wrought wonders under the guidance of the Great Leader. Stephen Harper praised him for doing some heavy lifting for the Conservative cause. Both are entitled to mutual self-admiration. Critics are free to take the opposite view.
But it takes shamelessness, a.k.a. unmitigated gall — and/or blind faith in a make-believe world — to claim, as Baird does, that “I have seen the stature of this country grow in the eyes of the world.” Or that “Canada has stood up for the oppressed.” Or that he has taken “Canada’s strength, Canada’s compassion and Canada’s values in every corner of the world.”
The pronouncements are in inverse proportion to reality.
Canada’s status sank so low under Harper that, for the first time in our history, we suffered the ignominy of a loss in a bid for the rotating seat on the UN Security Council. That shameful episode preceded Baird at Foreign Affairs but he became lead spear carrier for the very policies that led to that fiasco, including disdain for the UN, principally because it tries to hold Israel’s feet to the fire of international law.
Canada is still isolated. It was in a minority of nine at the General Assembly when 138 states voted to grant Palestinians “non-member observer state.”
As for Ottawa standing up for the oppressed, ask the Palestinians, now in their 48th year of an oppressive occupation. Some of them pelted Baird’s motorcade with shoes and eggs when he visited the West Bank last month.
Ask the tens of thousands of Egyptians rotting in jails what they think of Canada cozying up to their tormentor, the military dictator Field Marshall AbdelFattah el-Sissi.
Ask the dissidents in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain what they make of Canada lining up with the rulers who crushed their Arab Spring.
Ask the dissidents in China who feel abandoned by Ottawa biting its tongue on human rights to promote trade.
Take Baird’s self-praise that he has evolved from a partisan zealot at Queen’s Park under Mike Harris to a statesman in Ottawa under Harper.
“I was driven by ideology, defined by partisanship, at the age of 25. I quickly learned though to make a difference, you can’t be defined by partisanship, nor by ideology.” Who is he kidding that he’s now less ideological or partisan? In fact, he has been more so and on a bigger stage. Foreign policy is politicized for the benefit the Conservative party, just as the Republicans long ago mastered the art of turning foreign relations to their advantage.
Some politicians and pundits have fallen for Baird’s spin that he has worked “in an effective way, not in a loud way” in trying to persuade the Egyptian authorities to release Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, who has spent more than 400 days in jail on trumped-up charges. Sure, you can claim so if you’ve assumed the role of a supplicant before the Egyptian military junta, whom you praise for ostensibly transitioning Egypt toward democracy, and with which you have just signed a series of agreements to enhance Egyptian border security, train police and advance bilateral business (the last two initiatives with funding from the United Arab Emirates).
Baird, like Harper, claims to have been “principled.” They are only if we accept that speaking with a forked tongue is principled — presiding over glaring contradictions, such as standing up for certain minorities and not others, attacking Vladimir Putin for crushing democracy in Ukraine but lauding elSissi and other Arab autocrats for crushing democracy.
Loud and loquacious and brash Baird certainly was — qualities that made him a breath of fresh air in Harper’s stultified Ottawa, and also a welcome contrast to his dull predecessor Lawrence Cannon (who, having been defeated in his Quebec riding in 2011, was rewarded for services rendered in the court of King Stephen by being named ambassador to France, just as the prime minister’s bodyguard, Bruno Saccomani, was promoted as ambassador to Jordan, a personal conduit to the king there).
On substance, Baird was seen as shallow by his own diplomats who found him glib and driven by pre-conceived notions. They resented being muzzled by him and Harper, and also the Conservative populist idea of selling off embassies and official residences, properties in choice locations that have long helped promote trade and attract investments to Canada.
Baird was a great success as Harper’s megaphone — a classic case of serving the boss obediently. That’s not the same thing as advancing Canada’s interest or reputation.