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This past week, the Harper government announced that our diplomats are going to become salesmen.

Of course, they didn’t say it that way. Trade Minister Ed Fast used yet another tortured hockey metaphor to describe the latest enthusiasm over at the Pearson Building: “economic diplomacy.” But make no mistake, that is what it comes down to. Canadian diplomats will now be focused on economic matters — or, to be non-elitist about it, flogging stuff. Did you miss the public debate on that one? No, because there wasn’t one.

If our diplomats are to become an exotic troupe of travelling salesmen, there would seem to be little use for embassies. So the Tories sold our High Commission building in London to a developer for $530 million. Like other salesmen, our diplomats can operate out of hotels with discounted room rates for early bookings.

It should be said that the sale of the official residence of the Canadian High Commissioner in London will not just affect foreign service officers.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and six friends stayed at the 42-room, 12-bathrooms mansion for an eight-day vacation before the sale. For free. Though Baird boasted that he paid for his own taxis and drinks during his 2013 London adventure, that didn’t stop NDP foreign critic Paul Dewar from calling him a “freeloader” at the time. Perhaps Dewar remembered Baird’s earlier free vacation at the Canadian Consul-General’s residence in New York and wanted to head off a trend.

I would be remiss if I didn’t note that our newly-minted diplomatic sales force might yet be able to avoid the Holiday Inn-with-the-roomie option. The government announced back in 2012 that we would be sharing diplomatic digs with the Brits in certain places around the world.

Remember when Baird said it was being done to save money? John, real countries have embassies, not basement apartments in other peoples’ embassies. As Rick Mercer observed at the time, “Have I had a stroke? Remember the good old days, five minutes ago, when we had sovereignty.”

And where exactly are we going to save this money by staying in a British diplomatic boarding house, be it embassy or consulate? Baird told us where — in those hot spots of economic growth in Asia where everybody is trying to make a buck. Countries like Burma.

That’s right, we will split the diplomatic rent with a partner that has a dark history in the region as a ruthless colonial power. Won’t that be image-building for Canada: bunk-mates in Myanmar with the same country that gave the indigenous population all those fond memories … annexation with India, the looting of oil, teak and rubies and three brutal Anglo-Burmese wars stretching over 60 years.

There are lots of ways that Stephen Harper has shown what he really thinks of Canada’s foreign service besides this degrading transformation of diplomats into salesmen.

In his first four years in office, the PM had four different Foreign Affairs ministers. Their collective experience was painfully thin — perhaps the occasional jaunt to Buffalo, or a week at a Club Med. Under Stephen Harper, foreign affairs, like Health, has become a junior ministry.

International affairs and diplomacy don’t matter a tinker’s damn to this PM. He finds his comfort zones at a Rob Ford barbecue, not at an international peace conference aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

And how much does the Harper government respect the Canadian diplomats and other officials who serve in trying and often dangerous circumstances? Not much — at least not as viewed through the lens of the recent six-month strike of Canada’s foreign service workers over the revolutionary concept of pay equity.

The executive VP of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, Chris Aylward, said that the government showed “absolutely no respect” to his members. Interestingly, the strike ended only after the Public Service Labour Relations Board found that Treasury Board President Tony Clement had negotiated in bad faith.

International affairs and diplomacy don’t matter a tinker’s damn to this PM. He finds his comfort zones at a Rob Ford barbecue, not at an international peace conference aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

Former mentor and Conservative guru Preston Manning remembered this of Harper’s time as a Reform MP: “One thing that did surprise me about Stephen … He had no interest in international stuff. We simply couldn’t get him to travel.”

It shows. Harper has made thunderingly ill-informed judgements on many countries and international issues, none more egregious than in the Middle East. At a time when the rest of the world is moving towards peace with Iran, Canada closes its embassy, slanders the new government in Tehran, and contributes nothing to the negotiations but immature cynicism.

Then there is the Harper stand — virtual silence — on illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory, the demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, and the ongoing siege of Gaza, “all of which violate the Geneva Conventions that Canada signed and ratified.” Those are the words of Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Paul Heinebecker, in his recent book, Getting Back in the Game.

The truth is that Stephen Harper is the most obviously one-track, divisive leader Canada has ever had. His world comes down to a single interest. Here’s how Manning described Harper’s particular preoccupation: “The economy, the economy, the economy … The way into his head is the economy. It is the most open door.”

I suspect it is the only open door. That may be why Harper believes nothing is lost when diplomats become salesmen or government scientists are turned into R&D staff for corporations.

It may be why the government shuttered the Canadian International Development Agency without hesitation, and sold off a Canadian resource company to the Chinese, thinking their human rights record or Canadian sovereignty didn’t matter.

Moolah and marketing — the world according to Stephen Harper. Great credentials for a CEO, perhaps, but dismal for the leader of a country as grand as this one.

Michael Harris is a writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his “unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us.” His eight books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his books have been made into movies. He is currently working on a book about the Harper majority government to be published in the autumn of 2014 by Penguin Canada.

Readers can reach the author at [email protected]. Click here to view other columns by Michael Harris.

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