The Honorable Michael Kergin . . . Canadian Ambassador to the United States. Ambassador Kergin is a career diplomat who served at home in Ottawa and in Central and South America before going to Washington, D.C. as Canada's principal spokesperson to the U.S. government. He joined what is now the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1967. His postings abroad have included New York (the Canadian Mission to the United Nations), Cameroon, and Chile. He was Canada's Ambassador to Cuba from 1986 to 1989 and was twice posted in Washington prior to becoming Ambassador.

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Canadians increasingly are affirming their own identity, their own social systems, and their own global outlooks, says The Honorable Michael Kergin, Canada's Ambassador to the United States. Yes, Canada's warmest and closest relations are with the neighbor "south of the border." But when all that cordiality is put to the test, Ambassador Kergin is there, whether negotiating hot issues like US tariffs on soft wood lumber and Durham wheat or Canada's well-established preference for multilateral rather than unilateral actions. Like all highly accomplished diplomats, Ambassador Kergin uses diplomacy's full toolkit to serve his country.

Fortunately, Ambassador Kergin says, diplomacy has evolved a language of its own, where there is no ambiguity about the extent of the disagreement or the points of view you are conveying. You CAN disagree. Yet it is done in a way that personal animosities do not surface. That's an important service for governments to provide in their international relations, he says -- people who speak in a very clear way that does not add to a conflict's emotionalism.

"Diplomacy" can be dramatically different from one posting to another, this seasoned diplomat has learned while serving in Chile and Cameroon as well as at home in Ottawa. When in 1989 he finished his assignment as Ambassador to Cuba and became head of Canada's political section at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, Washington had more in common with Moscow than Havana. But with dialogue, he says, one can overcome a lot of misperceptions. Case in point, he hopes that is what Canada has been able to do in maintaining relations with Cuba.

Geography certainly matters, he says, especially when one shares a border with the world's omnipresent omnipower. But Ambassador Kergin insists comparisons of the two countries must include consideration of circumstances. For instance, Canada, with 33 million people, acts multilaterally whenever and wherever there is an opportunity. It's in a position to negotiate and use the art of compromise to reflect and promote its interests. Diplomat that he is, Ambassador Kergin urges understanding when the United States takes a different path, prompted by different geostrategic circumstances.

Ambassador Kergin believes "sovereignty" is both a political motivator and a foreign policy consideration for every nation, but it manifests differently. For Canada, a major concern is the American influence in Canadian cultural and social life. The US market is so big and its powerful cultural impact so great, he says, that Canada has both subsidies and regulations to assure that Canadian talent can thrive in the face of very powerful influences to the south. They also encourage the degree of Canadian content in Canadian culture, from literature and television to the performing arts. Do these government policies work? Well, perhaps it helps account for the fact that, as noted, Canadians increasingly are affirming their own identity, their own social systems, and their own global outlooks!

[This Program was recorded May 30, 2003, in Atlanta, Georgia, US.]