Shoot a terrorist, get an Ambassadorship!

Yurt2

Fairly bizzare appointment, they've essentially appointed a security gaurd as Ambassador to Ireland. I guess that's one way to get ahead, shoot a terrorist and get your pick of jobs. Don't Canada have trained career diplomats they could appoint?

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0108/671229-vickers/

Hande hoche!

Admit it, you're just jealous of his ceremonial mace.

Starboy

He's a Canadian hero,he may well have stopped a massacre,good appointment imo

Hitchens

Yurt! wrote: »

Fairly bizzare appointment, they've essentially appointed a security gaurd as Ambassador to Ireland. I guess that's one way to get ahead, shoot a terrorist and get your pick of jobs. Don't Canada have trained career diplomats they could appoint?

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0108/671229-vickers/

Top man............ well deserved

Yurt2

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Admit it, you're just jealous of his ceremonial mace.

You called it, I've always suffered from scepter envy

Yurt2

Hitchens wrote: »

Top man............ well deserved

But can he do it on a cold wet night in Longford?

My name is URL

Not really that bizarre.. Apparently he has a close working relationship with the Irish embassy in Canada and regularly takes Irish people on tours of government buildings

Speaking yesterday from Ottawa, Ireland’s Ambassador to Canada Dr. Ray Bassett described Vickers as “a real old fashioned cop from a large Irish Catholic family.”

He called him “a great friend to the embassy and to Ireland, and a hell of a decent guy,” always happy to take Irish visitors to Ottawa on a tour of the parliament buildings, pointing out shamrock engravings and other details anyone else might skip over.

Better him than some stuffed suit only doing it for a cheque

Jawgap

Well he's an ex-chief super in the RCMP so it's not like they're sending a doorman.

Plus given his profile, it probably says a lot about what Canadians think of us that they are sending him.

Finally, lots of countries don't appoint career diplomats to ambassadorial roles in safe or allied countries.

Yurt2

My name is URL wrote: »

Not really that bizarre.. Apparently he has a close working relationship with the Irish embassy in Canada and regularly takes Irish people on tours of government buildings



Better him than some stuffed suit only doing it for a cheque

All the same, bit of a leap from copper to international diplomat. I'm sure he's a stand up guy and all, but I'm not sure I'd approve of Ireland sending over an inexperienced diplomat from a completely different profession to Paris, Berlin or Ottawa. Anywho, he'll be more effective than the husband and wife duo in the Israeli embassy, there's probably WWE tag teams with better diplomatic credibility than those two clowns.

Yurt2

Jawgap wrote: »

Well he's an ex-chief super in the RCMP so it's not like they're sending a doorman.

Plus given his profile, it probably says a lot about what Canadians think of us that they are sending him.

Finally, lots of countries don't appoint career diplomats to ambassadorial roles in safe or allied countries.

Didn't realize he was that high up in the RCMP. Fairy nuff

Sheldons Brain

Could be good appointment, they can save the cost of a security man at the Canadian embassy.

strobe

It's extraordinarily unlikely that Ireland and Canada are going to have any high tension, high stakes, disputes at any point in the foreseeable future. It's not like appointing a Chinese ambassador to the US, or a Pakistani ambassador to India, or anything like that. I'm sure he is plenty capable of doing what the job will require given his background.

cnocbui

Yurt! wrote: »

All the same, bit of a leap from copper to international diplomat. I'm sure he's a stand up guy and all, but I'm not sure I'd approve of Ireland sending over an inexperienced diplomat from a completely different profession to Paris, Berlin or Ottawa. Anywho, he'll be more effective than the husband and wife duo in the Israeli embassy, there's probably WWE tag teams with better diplomatic credibility than those two clowns.

I approve of this appointment. In another league altogether compared to George Bush who you could be mistaken for thinking sold such positions:
http://scholarsandrogues.com/2007/06/25/bushs-patronage-appointments-to-ambassador-exceed-fathers-clintons/

fran17

Looks to be a humble man which makes a change.Best of luck to him.

Jawgap

Yurt! wrote: »

Didn't realize he was that high up in the RCMP. Fairy nuff

Indeed, he also worked with a number of other police forces tackling the drug trade so he has some international experience, if you could call it that.

bjork

Yurt! wrote: »

Didn't realize he was that high up in the RCMP. Fairy nuff

It is fairy nuff when you see his credentials.

changepartners

Jawgap wrote: »

Indeed, he also worked with a number of other police forces tackling the drug trade so he has some international experience, if you could call it that.

Wonder could he clean up Dublin city centre as a nixer?

Jawgap

Sheldons Brain wrote: »

Could be good appointment, they can save the cost of a security man at the Canadian embassy.

Certainly, I reckon people will be reluctant to barge into his office unannounced

Rhys Essien

Ahm..where's the big deal here.

In Canada,cop becomes ambassador

In Ireland,school teacher gets to run the country.

Jawgap

changepartners wrote: »

Wonder could he clean up Dublin city centre as a nixer?

Hmmmm, you could be on to something here - if he was to go a bit 'Dirty Harry' on them he'd have his diplomatic immunity to fall back on........

mad muffin

He has a set of very particular skills?

Manic Moran

cnocbui wrote: »

I approve of this appointment. In another league altogether compared to George Bush who you could be mistaken for thinking sold such positions:
http://scholarsandrogues.com/2007/06/25/bushs-patronage-appointments-to-ambassador-exceed-fathers-clintons/

Why focus on George Bush? Unless you have a particular issue with him personally?

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Voices/2014/1203/Is-Obama-favoring-donors-in-ambassador-appointments-That-s-nothing-new.

President George W. Bush made 453 appointments in his eight years in office, 318 (70.2 percent) of them career appointments, and 135 (28.9 percent) political appointments; and finally,
President Obama has, to date, made 378 appointments since 2009, 245 (64.8 percent) of them career appointments, and 133 (35.2 percent) political appointments

The record appears to be President Ford, with 38% political.

I strongly diaspprove of the concept of political appointees in general, but it's par for the course in the US, and as you can see, Bush isn't the worst of them.

Here's a face-palming news article. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/02/5-most-cringe-worthy-blunders-from-obamas-ambassador-nominees/

evo2000

Yurt! wrote: »

Fairly bizzare appointment, they've essentially appointed a security gaurd as Ambassador to Ireland. I guess that's one way to get ahead, shoot a terrorist and get your pick of jobs. Don't Canada have trained career diplomats they could appoint?

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0108/671229-vickers/

He s done than any other useless ambassador anyway! the mace was class tho!

Stheno

Jawgap wrote: »

Certainly, I reckon people will be reluctant to barge into his office unannounced

Jaysis have you ever tried to visit the embassy offices?

It's a nightmare to get into