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It would be wrong to say Baird was much loved or respected by Canada’s cadre of retired diplomats. He wore their criticisms like a badge of honour, especially when they slammed him for his intense devotion to Israel.

But younger diplomats, who were not so invested in that perpetual political hot potato, had other reasons for disliking Baird. Whether the subject was the Middle East, Europe or Asia, they often complained that he had a wide but thin knowledge of the issues and seemed to come at them with preconceived notions about the world that were seldom modified as he became more deeply briefed.

Foreign service officers would roll their eyes or wince when they heard he was coming to town. They did not see the utility of many of his visits and wearied of the arrangements they had to make to accommodate his stays.

There was the infamous incident in 2013 when CTV News reported that Baird and six friends stayed for eight days at Macdonald House — the official residence of Canada’s high commissioner to Great Britain. It was not the first or last time that Baird was seen by his diplomats as freeloading at his ministry’s expense although it was the only time the issue erupted into a scandal.

I had only one long conversation with Baird. As it happens, we had tea at Macdonald House in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, which is one of the poshest precincts in London.

Two things stand out in my memory from the off-the-record chat we had. The first was that Baird was extremely contemptuous of the media. He told me Canada’s senior generals could not be trusted to talk with journalists because the latter would try to trick these mostly savvy officers into saying something that could be used against the government. His opinion was very much that the military had to be muzzled and managed.