KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid shared a laugh with the ambassador, snipped a pink ribbon alongside a cabinet minister and showered Canada with praise Tuesday to demonstrate he holds no ill will toward the country that let slip it was seeking his ouster.
Khalid was making his first appearance in public since Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier triggered a diplomatic maelstrom last week by telling reporters Khalid should be replaced -- an inadvertent admission that was swiftly retracted.
The embattled governor was met by International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda, who was wrapping up her three-day visit to Afghanistan by becoming the first Canadian minister to host a news conference in the heart of perilous Kandahar city.
Together with Arif Lalani, Canada's affable ambassador to Afghanistan, the trio took a pair of scissors from an ornately decorated platter and cut the ribbon on a new Department of Literacy building aimed at buttressing vital skills in a province where 26 per cent of men and barely five per cent of women can read.
Speaking slowly, without notes and in strong English, Khalid reminded the gathered dignitaries, ministry officials and aid workers about Canada's sacrifices in Afghanistan and the country's importance to his province's future welfare.
"All the small and big issues will not bring any difference in our relations," he said, a wan smile crossing his face.
"Afghans and Canadians, especially Kandaharis and Canadians, they (were) friends, they will be friends, and hopefully we will continue this for a long, long, long time."
Guarded at every turn by a well-armed military security detail, Oda lived up to her ministry's name by shrugging off the controversy and singing the praises of the Kandahar government and its willingness to work side by side with the Canadians.
"Canada and Afghanistan and Kandahar have been friends, we will continue to be friends, we've got challenges that we have to work together to meet," Oda said later.
"He appreciates Canada's efforts, not only the military, but the development side."
She cited the example of the literacy building which was funded in part by a $1.4-million contribution CIDA made to UNICEF last February.
Oda also spent time in Kabul during her visit, meeting with students at a new teacher's college and speaking to an aid conference about Canada's plan to refine and focus its development goals in Kandahar province.
"We owe it to not only Canadians, but we owe it to the Afghan people and the Kandaharis, to say what we're going to do, what we want to accomplish, in a time frame so that they can see what they are going to get from Canada's work here."
Tuesday's exhibit served to cap a tumultuous week in Canada's often murky relationship with Khalid, a young, mercurial leader whose gradual falling out with the Canadian Forces has been punctuated by allegations of torture and corruption -- allegations the governor has strongly denied.
Khalid spent four years as governor of Ghazni province after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 before Afghan President Hamid Karzai, head of a centralized government that appoints its provincial representatives, moved him to Kandahar.
He spoke out on the weekend for the first time following Bernier's remarks, carefully aiming his barbs not at Ottawa, but at Kandahar Airfield where the Canadian military contingent and its leadership are based.
He made pointed allegations that some NATO troops, including those from Canada, have failed to support the Afghan government's poppy eradication efforts -- a thorny issue for coalition troops, who depend on strong relationships with local farmers and villagers.
Khalid also accused Canadian forces of ignoring repeated warnings about intelligence that indicated a pending suicide attack in the border town of Spin Boldak -- an attack that ended up killing 38 civilians.
The Canadian Forces have repeatedly denied that there is any problem with the relationship between the military and the Kandahar government, insisting the spirit of co-operation remains "very strong."
Prominent Afghan parliamentarian Khalid Pashtun, a well-connected veteran of Kandahar political circles, said in a Canadian Press report Monday that the governor had already quietly packed his things and was en route to Kabul, poised to leave his post, when Bernier's comments landed like a bombshell.
Pashtun said he believes Karzai, sensitive to the political dangers of being perceived by his constituents as a puppet of international forces, was forced to delay his plan to replace Khalid to avoid the impression he was doing the bidding of the Canadian government.
On Tuesday, Khalid repeated his satisfaction with Bernier's retraction.
"This issue is finished already, and there was no issue," he said. "It was a misunderstanding, which I believe, and for me, relations between Afghans and Canadians, this is more important."
He also seemed to suggest, when asked whether he had any plans to step down, that his fate rests squarely in the hands of the Afghan president.
"We have had a lot of successes, and things (are) getting better day by day," he said. "The system which we have in Afghanistan, this (responsibility) belongs to (the) president."
