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OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is rejecting suggestions the federal Conservative government, in directing Canadian diplomats last month to be constantly on the prowl for commercial opportunities, is selling out for the almighty dollar.

And he accuses those who suggest otherwise of “extremist fear mongering.”

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“I think critics of the government somehow think we’re going to be closing down our human rights division, we’re going to be closing down our nuclear disarmament division, and it’s all going to be about jobs,” Baird told Postmedia News in a year-end interview last week. “That’s ridiculous.”

Billed as a historic shift in this country’s approach to the world, the Conservative government’s move to entrench “economic diplomacy” as the driving force in Canada’s approach to the world has received both applause and criticism.

Business groups say the move is long overdue, particularly as many other countries such as the United States, Britain and France have already ordered their own diplomats to adopt such a commercial mindset.