Now in my 5th month, I was in the full swing of the job, with the patterns largely set with 3 or 4 encounters between visiting Canadian and Chinese officials at the Ministerial and Vice-Ministerial level every month, a similar number of my own interactions with officials of the Chinese Government and almost twice that with members of the Chinese Communist Party. Almost every month, the Embassy also greeted Provincial and Municipal politicians and officials.
Education was a huge issue: it shows up over 100 times among the list of Topics. Administration issues arose just about every week. CIDA continued to occupy a central role in the Canada-China relationship, even as its on-the-ground activities were taking place far from Beijing. Commercial relations required a great deal of my attention: on average, weekly meetings dealing with agricultural issues were matched by meetings in other commercial sectors. Atomic Energy of Canada was among our top customers. Arts&Culture appear quite frequently on my schedule, although here I plead guilty to a personal bias. Some readers will be disappointed by the relatively low frequency Human Rights and Rule of Law work on my agendas: the reality is that CIDA programs oversaw this area of Canadian interests, and they had been imbedded in Canada’s China strategy for decades. Beyond CIDA, my own engagement tied in with that of the Embassy’s Political Section, usually in meetings with the MFA, think tanks and individual Chinese intellectuals. Lai Changxing made an occasional appearance. North Korea got some attention, more than that addressed to Mongolia. And I did find the time to reflect on Chinese politics and the country’s governance, as I did as well on the Chinese economy.

I travelled to a few major cities during the year - Shanghai, Guangzhou, Macao, Hong Kong – but not as much as I would have wished. The demands in Beijing were unrelenting.

I did undertake two weeks of outreach activities in Canada, from coast-to-coast, speaking to a wide variety of audiences outside Ottawa. I considered that this was a key role as Ambassador, given the high level of interest on matters Chinese and the bilateral relationship, and that throughout the country. I met with the Canadian, Chinese and international media on a regular basis, to explain Canada’s China policies and priorities, but also to collect opinions of people who, like me, thought about China on a daily basis.

I should add that I gave a very large number of speeches during my years as ADM as well, and subsequently in China, Japan and India, but Canada was my primary outreach target. I wrote all of my own texts. However, I depended on DFAIT and Embassy staffs to assist on providing trade and economic statistics, as well as factoids that underpinned the arguments that I put forward in my remarks.

I was fortunate to have travel allowances that allowed me to undertake tours in Canada on a regular basis. Even during the Harper years, when Canada’s diplomats were discouraged when not outright barred from public speaking, I continued in my outreach work, figuring that I was senior enough in the Departmental hierarchy and I was smart enough to know what to say and what not to say to Canadian and non-Canadian publics and could manage any criticism that came my way. If there was any, no one told me about it.

Also, since I was focused on Asian audiences and Canadians interested in Asia when back home, I would be addressing issues that were not especially sensitive in Ottawa. Still, for a certain period, it appears that I was one of only a few Ambassadors pursuing outreach activities. One former Minister from the Mulroney government told me, while we shared the stage at a conference at the Banff Springs Hotel, that I was the only Ambassador he knew who was out there, in public, addressing issues of importance to Canadians. I doubt that this was entirely the case. But I was certainly among the few Heads of Mission active at that time.

Before undertaking an outreach tour, I would communicate to businesses, law firms, provincial and city governments, universities, think tanks and so forth about my plans to visit their respective cities, and indicating that I would make myself available to speak in public and in private to audiences who had an interest in the country or countries I covered. My itineraries were thus based on the stated interests of the audiences.

2002