Pamela Wallin on Anti-Americanism in Canada

Diane Francis column Wednesday Post July 19:



Canadian broadcaster Pamela Wallin has just ended her four-year term as Canada's Consul-General in New York City and now heads off to become a corporate director and associate at a U.S. think tank.

"I will be staying here in New York City 60% of the time and 40% in Canada. I have homes in both places. I will live the cross-border life and practice what I preach, living and breathing and sharing the two countries. I can't imagine not being in both places," she said over breakfast in a New York diner this week.

Pamela has made a huge difference during her stint as a diplomat, raising Canada's profile through the media and special events with American partners.

She was asked to stay as Consul-General by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but declined, in order to move onto other things. Likewise, she's not returning to journalism.

Plans include serving on several prestigious boards, to be announced soon, and establishing a Canadian program at the Rockefeller Foundation's Council of the Americas, a New York think tank.

She's become very attached to New York even though it's a gigantic urban area with apartment buildings that are occupied by as many people as live in her tiny hometown of Wadena, Saskatchewan. Population 1,500.

"I love being in New York. It's a cliché but there's an indescribable and seductive energy in this city and it's more than just the fact that there are eight million people here," she said. "New York is more than the sum of its parts. It's a cultural hub, a financial hub and media hub. It's the ideas hub too. It's a place where people think and debate."

Her appointment by former Prime Minister Jean Chretien followed her participation in a successful "Canada Loves New York" rally after 9/11. Some 23,000 Canadians trekked to the city and Pam hosted a live, three-hour broadcast celebrating the friendship. Months later she was offered the job.

"I came here with a passion to do something about the Canada-U.S. relationship," she said. "I guess this was because, like most Western Canadians, I grew up with a positive sense of Americans. Also like a lot of Western Canadians, I had American cousins, family on the other side of the border."

"This experience in the last four years has changed me. It's given me insights, information and skills that now I need to use," she said. "The Americas Society will allow me to continue working on improving the relationship between the two countries. The boards I'm going to do will be about imparting that information."

She also has agreed to speak to targeted audiences on both sides of the border as to how to improve the relationship.
"This is fundamental to Canada's future," she said. "The north south axis is crucial. Canada exports more to Home Depot in the U.S. than to France. 87% of our exports are to the U.S. And 24% of U.S. exports go to Canada, its largest market. But the two don't understand one another. As one writer said Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada and Canadians are malevolently informed."

She has regarded her job as Consul-General as that of "a giant translator" who really wants Canadians to understand they have to get this right and nurture the relationship for a change.

"If you had a corner store and sold 87% of everything on your shelves to the Smiths, you would know when their childrens' birthdays were, you would send presents and cards, you would know what colors they liked, who their friends were, their enemies. Well, Canada is that corner store and we're out of date about the Smiths."

The relationship deteriorated as a result of some actions by Canadian politicians, she said.

"Post 9/11 ideological differences between our governments got in the way.

It wasn't that we said no to Iraq, but how we said no and the name-calling," she said. "The new PM wants to have a frank, business, working relationship and that's appropriate."

Mishandling the relationship has had "economic consequences", she added.

"It did not result in the shut down of a plant but investment decisions favoring Canada were not made. This is only logical. If you are at war and under siege and you have to choose between a plant in Canada and one in Tennessee you're going to favor the home team," she said.

Her interest in the U.S./Canada relationship also arose out of journalism.

"There were my family connections plus the predominant story when you cover politics in Canada is the relationship with the Americans. Every politician in trouble in Canada takes on the Americans to change the subject. This cannot continue."