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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Wilson had his fill of 'intense job'
"It's a pretty intense job," the 71-year-old Wilson, who served as ambassador since 2006, said Friday in an interview.
"The hours are long -- a normal day is 8:30 til 6:30 or 7, then you had the dinners that are two, three, four nights a week, and those are business dinners, not casual affairs. I wasn't prepared to give another four years at that level of intensity."
The Prime Minister's Office announced Wilson's resignation Friday in a curious fashion: in an itinerary for Prime Minister Stephen Harper that described a meeting with "the new ambassador-designate of Canada to the United States of America."
That turned out to be outgoing Manitoba Premier Gary Doer, who announced a surprise resignation of his own the previous day at a news conference in Winnipeg.
It's customary to announce an ambassador's departure before naming a replacement. The news about Wilson, a loyal Conservative who has spent decades in public service, caught some observers off guard.
"I found out about it on Facebook with the news about Gary Doer... I was pretty surprised," said David Biette the director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
"He's been a great spokesman for Canada and Canada's been very well-represented by him," Biette said of Wilson.
"But I know he didn't want to be here forever. His wife, in particular, wanted to be with the grandkids and be home in Ontario."
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 29, 2009 A7
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