Mr. Scott Goes to Washington - Act Three, Scene Nine: An Ambassador and a Gentleman

Again, I've been slacking off. And now that I'm almost out of time, I'm stuck in a race against time to have my blog catch up with my real life. To that end, this entry will cover the period from Monday, Dec. 5 to Saturday Dec. 10 - once again, in startling detail.

If I can remember what happened.

On Monday (Dec. 5) we didn't have any morning events, so Claire and I went gift-shopping before our afternoon lecture. The speaker was a very important guy whose name I can't remember. But he worked for Reagan, and gave a pretty interesting speech. Not *too* interesting, though, 'cause then I'd probably remember who he was.

On Tuesday morning I finished my report on the US Chamber of Commerce lunch speaker I had attended the previous Thursday. That afternoon, we had an intern briefing with the Ambassador, Frank McKenna, which was absolutely amazing. He is a really interesting guy, with a lot to say about Canada, the US, and pretty much any topic put to him. I asked him about the rumours that he might run to replace Paul Martin as Liberal Party leader (and, therefore, Prime Minister of Canada), which he dodged quite astutely. He said that no decisions had been made, that it would be a very difficult job, and that the media attention would be very hard on his family. He also noted that Canadians are notoriously tough on their leaders - he pointed out, quite correctly, that less than two years ago everybody was cheering for Paul Martin to replace Chretien, and now they're tearing Martin to pieces.

Immediately after that, though, he basically laid out an agenda for how he would run the country, which was really interesting to hear. He pretty much said everything I wanted to hear - to the point that a couple of my friends kept looking at me going "Eh?" At any rate, I was on cloud nine afterward; I was so excited about what he'd said that I actually considered voting Liberal to get him elected! We also got a group photo taken, although the lady taking it screwed it up and the lighting is funny See below (Frankie's standing right in front of me) :

On Wednesday I attended a hearing on Peak Oil theory held by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. I was accompanied by the Energy Counsellor, who said he “wanted to watch one of the witnesses.” As it turned out, I was in for my first bit of diplomatic intrigue.

One of the scheduled witnesses was actually the representative of the Province of Alberta at the embassy. The government has a policy against embassy officers testifying before Congress (it has something to do with sovereignty issues; they are allowed to interact and meet with Congress, but never to testify). Apparently this representative was told that he was not allowed to testify, and that if he did there would be ‘repercussions.’ So the Energy Counsellor came with me to intimidate him. As soon as he saw our Energy Counsellor was there to watch him, he informed the Chairman that he had an urgent teleconference, and left without testifying. I found it all rather exciting – when I found out what had happened, totally after the fact.

When I got back the embassy I started my report on that hearing.

On Thursday (Dec 8.) , I finished my report on Wednesday’s peak oil hearing, and started my report on the Brookings Tax Policy conference I’d attended the previous Friday. We also had an embassy staff briefing with the Ambassador in the auditorium in the basement. He gave us, basically, a holiday pep talk, saying how proud he was of the work that the staff was doing, and how grateful he was that the personnel at the embassy had helped him feel so welcome in the six months or so since he became Ambassador. The highlight for me was when Frankie tap danced on stage. That night I spent like most of my nights that week - trying to get myself to work on the large number of essays I had to finish for my portfolio. I think by Friday I had finished 2 out of 5.

On Friday (Dec. 9) , I finished my report on the Tax Policy Conference. After work my friend Kristina Athanadanalapolopodopoulos was supposed to throw me a birthday party, which she called to cancel. Then she called back and cancelled the cancellation. So we were on! It was a really fun night, one dedicated to the spirit of strengthening bilateral relations, as outlined in my keynote address. I won't go into sordid details, but my roommates from New England (with whom I recently bonded) got thrown out by Kristina's whacky roommate, and Kristina ended up wrapped in aluminum foil. Also, we played a lot of 80s music. It was great.

On Saturday (Dec. 10) I spent more or less the whole day working on my essays, I think. Which means I probably procrastinated until 8pm before actually working.

I'm going to stop here because I need to go finish packing. But before I do, I want to say hello to Claire's cousins Hailey and Hannah who, I'm told, read the blog regularly. Today at the embassy Claire showed me a wonderfully festive powerpoint presentation that Hailey had whipped up, with moving pictures and everything. Definitely put me in the Christmas mood!