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Marie-Louise Hannan: Bienvenue Ministre Baird. Thank you and welcome to Canada down under.
Thank you very much for making the time to be with us this afternoon
to answer a few questions. Hon. John Baird: Great to be with you. Marie-Louise Hannan: We were wondering if you might tell
us first your impression. You've been in Australia now for a few days and you’ve met
with a few people. What’s your impression of the pulse? Hon. John Baird: There’s a great vibe
here. Obviously we share so much in common, the same values,
much of the same history. It’s an exciting place.
It’s almost like taking the best of Toronto and Vancouver and putting
it together with the ocean. It’s a very exciting place,
obviously a lot of close relationships culturally, business wise,
politically, diplomatically. We’re here to try to do all we can
to forge even stronger ties and
increase the connections between our two great countries. There’s so much more that we can do
working together whether it’s between governments, between the private sector.
We see a lot of opportunity here so being
here is all about pushing this relationship and trying to get even
more out of it. Marie-Louise Hannan: Excellent. Just turning a little bit to
the main reason that you’re here in Australia, the Australia Canada Economic Leadership Forum,
why do you see this forum as important? Hon. John Baird: I think it brings together
some of the best and brightest from government, outside of government, the private
sector and I think by showing up demonstrating a real
commitment not just to the government relationships and the people to people relationships
but particularly on the business community and on building
the relationship, taking it to the next level. Marie-Louise Hannan: Recently your
colleague the Minister of International Trade, I think released the global markets action plan.
I think one of the components there is this concept of
economic diplomacy, that we’ve got to be doing more with our diplomatic and consular assets.
Could you comment on how you see that working? Hon. John Baird: If you want to be strong abroad you’ve got
to be strong at home. In today’s world that means having a strong economy
that allows us to pay for priorities like healthcare, education. It’s fundamental
to our quality of life. We want to expand Canadian
interests particularly in commercial to try to generate more wealth
for our country so we can support the
objectives that we have for the whole world – peace, prosperity and security.
Marie-Louise Hannan: Turning to digital diplomacy which is I think
another subject that is dear to your heart, what role do you see for social
media in our new era of diplomacy? Hon. John Baird: I think the new era
of diplomacy has got to be more than elites talking to elites. We
in many countries can’t have a meaningful engagement with
political elites. We now have the chance to go around and go over the top
of the heads of repressive regimes and
speak directly to their populations and then provide them with
a democratic space that they would not otherwise have. Marie-Louise Hannan: What’s been your own journey,
say using Twitter? Any lessons that you’ve learned along the way that you’d care to share?
Hon. John Baird: I think one of the ones we want to do is we want to be able to reach out and tell the story
of what I’m doing, what the department is doing and how relevant it is
to people’s lives. It’s a great way to keep in touch with Canadians and
to show them firsthand what our priorities are and
where we’re taking action on their behalf. Marie-Louise Hannan: Great.
Now we do have one question that came to us from our Twitter sphere and
they are asking a question of you. What role is there
for Canadian cultural diplomacy in Australia? Will we ever
see a Canada House here in Australia? Hon. John Baird: We saw visiting
the Consulate yesterday I ran into a number of visual
artists here,
erforming and exhibiting their talents to the world. That’s exciting.
We hope to see more of it. Marie-Louise Hannan: Excellent. I wondered,
Minister, what’s your favourite Australian animal?
Hon. John Baird: Well, last time I was here Kevin
Rudd was the Foreign Minister and he introduced us to koalas and
angaroos. The kangaroos were kind of
mangy.
The koala was in pretty good shape so I’d have to say the koala. Marie-Louise Hannan: The koala? Okay,
great. You know, as fascinated as most Canadians are with Australian
animals being very exotic for us, Australians are also fascinated with our
unique Canadian animals and they just always want more.
We at the Consulate have been promoting sort of a
new friend we have and we call him Pierre
He is our own Canadian polar bear. We wondered if
you’d mind meeting him. Hon. John Baird: Wow. Absolutely. (Laughter)
Marie-Louise Hannan: Pierre is alive and well and he’s part of our
Sydney team. Hon. John Baird: Good to see you Pierre. We call this
grip and grin. Shall we do another one like this?
(Laughter)
(Laughter)
(Laughter)