Lawrence Cannon says goodbye

Outgoing Foreign Affairs minister Lawrence Cannon bid farewell to his post in Ottawa on Monday. He was defeated on the May 2nd election by an NDP candidate in his Western Quebec riding of Pontiac. Mr. Cannon entered the cabinet post with no international experience in 2008. In a speech at his department’s headquarters, he argued he would not have changed “one iota” in Canada’s failed campaign for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.  “The force of the instinct for democracy can sometimes surprise us, as has been the case in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Libya, and Syria – and I’m almost tempted to add, in Pontiac,” Mr. Cannon said. “But I don’t think anybody ever thought of me as Maniwaki Gadhafi.” Mr. Cannon was the longest-serving foreign minister since Lloyd Axworthy in the 1990s.

Globe and Mail