Northern BC’s Members of Parliament are offering a lot of praise for John Baird, who announced Tuesday morning that he is leaving his post as Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister.
Prince George – Peace River MP Bob Zimmer says Baird handled serious international issues, from the Ukraine crisis to terrorism at home.
Yet the Conservative MP says very few ever saw Baird’s funny side.
“When the cameras would go off John in the House of Commons, he’d be quite crazy at times,” Zimmer says. “He’d have a lot of us in stitches just by his actions, I think his character is something that I’m going to miss.”
Zimmer says even though Baird was partisan, he still had friends across the aisle.
“It’s just John’s personality, he’s a friendly guy, always had a listening ear if you had a concern, he always had the time to listen, I thought he was a great Minister,” he says.
Though Baird hasn’t said what his future has in store, Zimmer also won’t speculate, saying “I’ll leave that for John to let people know, John’s got a long life ahead of him to choose whatever he wants to do, so I just wish him well on whatever path he chooses that to be.”
In the NDP camp, their Finance Critic Nathan Cullen, who also serves as MP for Skeena – Bulkley Valley says word around Parliament Hill about Baird’s future rangers from a role with the United Nations to getting a job with the private sector.
“Maybe he wants to spread his wings a bit and try something else,” he says. “A lot of us in Parliament have that have been in for a little while, just go do something completely different.” Though Cullen believes the private sector is most likely where Baird will end up, given his deep Roladex .
Cullen says he always had a lot of respect for Baird, even dating back to when he was Environment Critic to Baird as Environment Minister.
“I’m said to see him go,” Cullen says. “He was one of the most capable people Stephen Harper had in his cabinet. He was a bit of a ‘problem fixer’, the Prime Minister would put him in a situation where things have gone sideways. So losing him is probably a pretty big loss for Mr. Harper.”
“I could certainly approach John on just about anything that needed doing and he’d listen and work with us on common files,” Cullen says. “He’d have a little bit of humor, there’s kind of a sour lot over there sometimes when you look across the aisle, it’s kind of grumpy. John Baird was never too far from trying to make light of what was going on in the House, because it can be a pretty tension-filled place.”
The 45 year-old Baird hasn’t announced where he will go, only that it was “Time to move on” and that he “Needed to be defined by his values”.
In his departing speech to kick off Tuesday’s meeting in the House of Commons, Baird said “After serving 10 years in provincial politics, 10 years here in federal politics, 10 ministerial portfolios, and with more grey hairs than I choose to admit, I can step-back and say that we have an Ottawa that is vibrant and strong, a country that is the best in the world.”
It appears current International Trade Minister Ed Fast will become acting Foreign Minister.
Baird’s departure from cabinet, along with the resignation of Jim Flaherty a month before his death last year, means two of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s most powerful ministers will have left his inner circle in less than a year.
Baird ended his speech reflecting on his values as an MP, “There is nothing more meaningful, nothing more special, than to sit at the benches of the sacred house and to serve with all of you.”
(Photo courtesy Canadian Parliament).
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