Former BC premier Gordon Campbell among dozens of Tory-appointed ambassadors to lose their jobs
Posted July 19, 2016 7:10 am.
Last Updated July 19, 2016 9:11 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion has wiped the diplomatic slate clean of several high-profile appointments made by the previous Conservative government.
More than two dozen ambassadors are being replaced around the world in a shuffle the government says is intended to ensure diplomats represent a wide diversity of Canadians.
In the UK, former BC premier Gordon Campbell is being replaced by former clerk of the privy council Janice Charette. Campbell has been our High Commissioner to the UK since 2011. He took the post after resigning from provincial politics a year earlier.
And in the Middle East, Dion is replacing the heads of two missions whose appointments both drew criticism for being too partisan.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper had appointed the former head of his security detail, Bruno Saccomani, as the ambassador to Jordan but he is now being replaced.
And so is Canada’s ambassador to Israel, Vivian Bercovici, in favour of Deborah Lyons who was previously Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan.
