Ambassadorship etiquette 1010

Having experience as a high-level adviser to foreign diplomats, I understand the important role an ambassador plays in representing the image of a country.

When Kevin Vickers, the Canadian ambassador to Ireland, decided to accost an Irish nationalist protester at a joint Irish-Anglo state memorial in Dublin, Ireland to remember British soldiers who died during Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising, he broke the No. 1 rule of being a diplomat: don’t start problems.

An event involving commemorating British soldier casualties during the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland is likely to go over about as well as a German Second World War veterans’ memorial being held in Israel.

Attendance at such an event is likely to invite controversy, without benefit to Canada.

Note to Canada’s diplomats, next time you get an invite like this,

remember these words: the ambassador expresses his/her thanks for your kind invitation and sends his/her regards, but due to his/her schedule is unable to attend. And at any events you do attend, please don’t touch anyone.

Marc Emery has always been a polite and respectable Canadian politician, and is a public face for good Canadian values. Emery should replace Vickers as the Canadian ambassador to Ireland.

Maybe Vickers could then instead lead up a national Canadian memorial to the late and unique Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, with the cast of “Trailer Park Boys.”

He can brawl all he wants there, and Rob would’ve wanted it that way — until Jim Lahey and Randy show up, that is.

Eric Hafner

Toms River, New Jersey