OTTAWA - There's a new breed of diplomat lurking in the country's missions around the world, a timid creature that recoils from the Canadian limelight and spends hours trying to reconcile an ever longer list of duties with a constantly shrinking budget.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is in the grips of a kind of existential crisis, say a range of current and recently retired staff, brought on by major challenges to their daily work. They speak of a chill that has descended on their ranks, thanks to a communications crackdown from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office, and the more overarching problem of years of deep budget cuts.
In the meantime, Harper is expected to reiterate in next week's speech from the throne that he wants Canada to cast a longer shadow on the world stage, another in a line of prime ministers who ask more of diplomats while simultaneously cutting their resources.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, Neil Hrab, said Canada's global influence declined under the previous Liberal government because money was "diverted away from the important work of diplomacy and toward extravagant vanity projects."
He said the Harper government is working at restoring Canada's stature in the world through "leadership, rebuilding our international capabilities and effective, focused diplomacy."
Christopher Westdal is a veteran diplomat who retired last year from the service.
"I spent 30 years learning how to drive: I'm unamused by an empty tank," he said. "I don't care whether it's a Chevy or a Cadillac - if it's a go-cart, give me some gas!
"There's this deep fury that the things required to do our job well are damn hard to get a hold of and, believe me, there's no thanks for doing it well."
Said another department insider: "There is nothing worse than a scared, timid, reclusive, protective bureaucrat. It doesn't give you either good public policy or good service delivery."
Foreign Affairs employees still in the system, who spoke strictly on condition of anonymity, describe a locked-down environment where even the most innocuous briefings for the media are rejected.
The Prime Minister's Office is said to conduct "witchhunts" when information leaks out against their wishes, and efforts to expand awareness of the accomplishments of the department are blocked.
Figures as high-ranking as Canada's ambassador to the United States - former Finance Minister Michael Wilson - and UN Ambassador John McNee are among the diplomats who have curtailed their contact with the Canadian media, despite their expertise and experience.
Wilson has not spoken to Canadian reporters since a round of interviews in February, although he provides access to American media. McNee directed reporters to Ottawa for questions about the Middle East when he first arrived in New York, even though he is one of the country's pre-eminent experts on the subject - having spent years in the region.
Recent requests by The Canadian Press to speak to diplomats working in international hotspots, such as the Sudan and Myanmar, were turned down by Foreign Affairs. Just about the only Canadian representatives authorized to speak to media regularly back home are those serving in Afghanistan, tasked with selling the controversial mission.
Conversely, American, British and Australian diplomats - among others - have been given new mandates to vastly increase their profiles abroad and reach out to the public back home. It's dubbed transformational diplomacy in Washington.
Globe and Mail correspondent Mark MacKinnon, who has dealt with Canadians in Moscow and the Middle East, says there's been a definite shift since the Conservatives took power in January 2006.
"People who would speak to me two years ago now won't even do it on an off-the-record, background basis," MacKinnon said. "They're absolutely terrified.
"I'm relying more on diplomats from foreign countries, so the Canadian view goes away. I still have to get the same information, so I talk to the Americans and Brits."
The lack of exposure back home is troubling to some diplomats, who worry that Canadians don't understand the work they do and don't understand why funding to the Department of Foreign Affairs is money well spent. It creates a vicious circle, where the government is able to slash foreign service budgets with little fear of public backlash.
Hrab rejected the suggestion that diplomats feel muzzled at home. He said that while ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Paul Meyer spoke to high profile audiences in Canada about his work - including at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies and the University of Winnipeg in late February 2007.
And while ambassador to France, Hrab said Claude Laverdure went on a major multi-city speaking tour of Fredericton, Moncton, Charlottetown, Halifax, St. John's, Toronto, Quebec City, Montreal and Ottawa in the fall of 2006 to remind Canadians about the importance of Canada's close ties with France.
Foreign Affairs is coping with a $142.8 million cut this year, and the decrease will continue through to 2009, as first prescribed by the Liberals. Last fall, the Conservatives trimmed millions more, most notably slashing $11 million from public diplomacy initiatives that help people understand the work the department does.
One of the country's best known diplomats, the recently retired Robert Fowler, says the public should be having a discussion about whether they want Canadians to be somebodies on the world stage.
"I suppose in answering broader questions like that, one could get into what diplomats ought to be allowed to do and say abroad, and how they do it," said Fowler, former ambassador to the U.S. and Italy, and an adviser to several prime ministers. "Instead of that discussion, we have surrogate discussions around the edges of such issues about why diplomats are well housed and have cocktail parties.
"Frankly, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is, for all intents and purposes, flat broke."
The government has recently put historic diplomatic residences on the real-estate market, most notably in Dublin and London where they will fetch many millions. New, more modest accommodations will be sought elsewhere.
Paul Heinbecker, former Canadian ambassador to the UN, says the public needs to understand that diplomats who are trying to help secure trade deals or address sensitive geo-political issues with foreign interlocutors need to project an image of excellence.
"You can't persuade people you're dealing with abroad that you're worth dealing with if you've got a condo in the suburbs," said Heinbecker, now with the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont.
"When I'm the ambassador abroad, I'm trying to sell Canada and create a positive image of Canada. You can't do that out of an orange crate. You've got to have proper facilities."
Said another former colleague: "If you look at what our European or Japanese or south Asian colleagues do in terms of diplomacy, they do much more than we do. Why, because they're stupider? Do they need to know why it's important that the ambassador of Singapore gives dinner parties? Is it something that's debated in the Singaporean parliament? Of course not."
So, how then to encourage a real debate in Canada about the Department of Foreign Affairs, its mandate and its funding?
Former deputy foreign affairs minister Peter Harder says it should be sparked by figures outside of Parliament, ideally think-tanks or other non-political actors.
"I hope that debate can be generated by a number of us from the outside who actually think that having the capacity of a strong foreign ministry is hugely important for a country like Canada, given the way in which international affairs dominates our political and social and economic well-being."
