Ambassador Caron Visits Canada

By John Pidkowich

In the first week of March, Canada’s Ambassador to Ukraine, His Excellency G. Daniel Caron was greeted by the Ukrainian Canadian Community. This was his first visit to Canada as Ambassador to Ukraine since arriving in Kyiv to assume his posting on August 18, 2009. The customary briefing visit to External Affairs Canada in Ottawa was complemented with courtesy community visits to Montreal, Regina, Edmonton,  and Toronto. Toronto’s busy itinerary schedule on March 5 included a luncheon hosted by the Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, a guest lecture appearance at the University of Toronto and concluded with his community evening presentation talk “Ukraine: Trends and Perspectives”, organized by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and held at the Canadian Ukrainian Art Foundation Gallery (KUMF). Following an open “question and answer” period with discussion, Ambassador Caron’s interaction with the community was further enhanced with the opportunity to meet Ambassador Caron individually for a face-to-face exchange of concerns and ideas during an elegant reception that followed the evening’s formal program.

UCC Toronto Branch President Markian Shwec was the evening’s host and moderator, who introduced a cross-section of the Ukrainian Canadian community to Ambassador Caron – some of its organizations, their accomplishments and aims as well as leadership in attendance. UCC National President Paul Grod introduced Mr. Caron, citing his diplomatic experience and with his appointment as Canada’s Ambassador in Ukraine, emphasised that Canada continues the tradition of appointing representatives to Ukraine who are very talented, hardworking and conscientious. 

Mr. Caron indicated to External Affairs his preference for being posted in Kyiv because of Ukraine’s importance in the region, in Europe, and Ukraine’s own historic developments in the making. On a more personal note, the ambassador is pleased that his wife Maria and their two children are fine, comfortable in their surroundings, adjusting to life in Ukraine and starting to speak Ukrainian, which permits him to concentrate fully on his work.

Within his presentation, Mr. Caron examined Ukraine and NATO, the European Gas Crisis and the upcoming Presidential Elections in Ukraine, slated for early 2010.

Upon presenting his diplomatic credentials to the Ukrainian foreign ministry, Mr. Caron met with President Victor Yushchenko for over an hour when they discussed NATO, the [Russian] invasion and conflict in Georgia, Canada’s external policy of territorial integrity for Georgia as well as Ukraine, and Mr. Yushchenko’s successful Official State Visit to Canada earlier in May 2008. Discussion then centred on the importance of trade between Canada and Ukraine, and investment. A new senior trade commissioner has been assigned to the embassy which is great support for such work. Ukraine has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Canada for cooperation in the atomic energy sector and now working on attaining concrete results.

Although the President had called for pre-term parliamentary elections for December which did not occur, it is Mr. Caron’s view that likely there will be no elections in 2009. However, the government coalition is weak and unstable, probably lacking in cooperation will but still functioning in the Verkhovna Rada. He also made note of the tension between the President and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko that will likely remain until Presidential Elections in January 2010. With the President’s current low popular support, it is likely that Victor Yanukovych will return and run against Mrs. Tymoshenko in the upcoming elections, however politics can change greatly with still a year to go and new figures such as former speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and others may appear in the presidential race. When that time comes, for certain, Mr. Caron stated Canada will have a large election observer delegation. The campaign will be aggressive with contenders positioning themselves with populist messages. In such an atmosphere, Ukraine will be a weaker country, politically and due to the economic crisis. The current politicians have difficult days understanding comprises and behaving in coalitions. In such difficult times of political instability and economic crisis, protests are foreseen but not mass arrests.

Since the initial payment of an IMF loan, Ukraine’s economic situation has worsened. Recently, visiting IMF  officials had a negative impression of Ukraine’s ability to meet the loan requirements. Mr. Caron said that he and the other G7 ambassadors took the initiative to meet together with President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko for them to arrive at a political consensus on an economic plan and State Budget to meet the conditions of the IMF loan, money which is very important and needs to be provided to the country. In the context of internal instability and political consensus being absent, it is very hard for Ukraine to negotiate on the international front not only with the IMF, but also with NATO, the EU and Russia. 

In light of the recent gas crisis, the players are saying, although Ukraine is a young country, it must get its act together and take responsibility for its obligations. Ambassador Caron stated that for Canada, Ukraine is not a frustrating partner, and personally believes that it’s “on the right track” The Ukrainian identity is much stronger now. The Ukrainian people made the choice of democracy over autocracy.” In the past year, Ukraine has gained membership in the World Trade Organization, a positive step and … continues to move rapidly in the right direction,” added Mr. Caron. He is personally confident that it is very important for Canada to have a strong presence in Ukraine. It is as important now for Canada to be there for Ukraine as it was 17 years ago.  “Canada must continue to have contact with Ukraine to help them meet their challenges” said Mr. Caron, adding “we need more exchanges between experts of Canada and from Ukraine … in good governance, anti-corruption, military assistance, [business] best practices, and justice. Canada is a country that loves to express its intractable support for Ukraine a [relatively new] independent and successful democracy. Mr. Caron quoted a French Foreign Minister under Francois Mitterand who once said “la democracie … n’est pas instantane,” adding that Ukraine has not done badly over the last ten years or so.

Some of the questions that followed pertained to the successes, request for continued support and not so successful results associated with the Canada Ukraine Parliamentary Program, immigration and visitor visa processing, anti-human trafficking measures, the cooperative movement and social welfare services in Ukraine, among others.