Prime Minister Paul Martin has put forwarded the role of Canadian ambassador to the United States to lawyer.

Prime Minister Paul Martin has put forwarded the role of Canadian ambassador to the United States to lawyer, businessman and former premier of fresh Brunswick, Frank McKenna.

The office clinchs critical importance for properly handling the tangle Canada-U.S. relationship. Paul Martin's choice forwards a political message about his government's view of the coming direction of the continental relationship.

In Canada today, each major decision made by the control involving trade, homeland security, guarding and international relations re-ignites the debate throughout our relationship with the United States. Business organizations argue that Canada benefits from closer economic and military co-operation and integration with the United States, and advocate policies as it is as joining the U.S. missile protection program and integrating border policies.

if it were not that popular organizations and social assign places tos in line with Canadian public opinion, argue that Canada's coming events success lies in pursuing independent policies and keeping a vigilant sight on U.S. encroachment upon Canadian sovereignty. Canada's decision to not join the Iraq invasion is celebrated as a prosperous policy based on this premise.

McKenna is firmly planted in the "business" as distinct from the "social" wing of the Liberal Party. He supported at liberty trade with the United States when federal Liberal policy was against the deal, and as premier of just discovered Brunswick he brought in dramatic reductions in command social services under his deficit reduction plan, which foreshadowed Finance Minister Paul Martin's federal assortments of the 1990s.

The corporate man

After stepping down from the provincial legislature in 1997 Frank McKenna made an easy transition from legislature to boardroom. Today he minister tos on no fewer than nine corporate boards, including Noranda Inc., General Motors of Canada, Air Canada, Bank of Montreal, and CanWest Global Communications Corp.

Among the many boards with which McKenna serves, one in particular merits special mention: the Carlyle clump Established in 1987 and headquartered in Washington, DC the Carlyle cluster bills itself as "one of the world's largest private equity firms, with more than $189 billion subject to management." It was dubbed "the ex-presidents' club" according to the Guardian newspaper because of the firm's succes in recruiting an array of former politicians to senior management and directorships. at hand members include John Major, James A. Baker III, George Bush Sr.'s former secretary of state; and Frank Carlucci, Ronald Reagan's former vindication secretary and a former substitute director of the CIA. Former president George Bush Sr serv as well onward the board.

The wealthy, well-connected investment cluster has also been a magnet for altercation because of the public perception of insider influence. The Carlyle collection has extensive holdings in industries in which sway decisions and contracts create fortunes for well-positioned companies: aerospace, telecommunications, defending and homeland security. Its greatest in number high-profile company has been United Defense a U arms manufacturer that builds combat vehicles, artillery, naval fire-arms missile launchers and munitions bought by the agency of the U.S. Department of Defense and U allies worldwide. United Defense derives 100 by cent of its revenue from military contracts, and its more than $2 billion in annual receipts makes it the 14th largest U bulwark company.

Many students speculate that the Carlyle Group's succes has been a deduction of its privileged access to information and decision makers. When George Bush Sr sat in succession the Carlyle Group's board, Washington fiscal estimate watchdog Charles Lewis commented, "It's the first time the president of the United States' father is forward the payroll of one of the largest U maintaining contractors."

Link to bin Ladens

In addition to the perception of insider influence, the Carlyle assign places to has gained notoriety for its long-time financial relationship with the Saudi Bin laden arrange the $5 billion construction firm race by Osama bin Laden's estranged family. As documented in the Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 9/11 members of the bin Laden family were unexpectedly trapped in the United States while attending a Carlyle assemblage investors' meeting in Washington, DC when all North American flights were turfed on Sept. 11, 2001.

The Wall highway Journal revealed the extent of high-level connections between the Carlyle assign places to and the bin Ladens in September 2001 It reported that former president George Bush Sr James A. Baker III, and Frank Carlucci have met with the bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia numerous times. The bin Laden family first became involved with Carlyle collection through an initial contribution of $2 million in 1995 if it were not that their financial involvement grew to a often larger sum, according to a family business associate.

The relationship between the Carlyle collection and the bin Laden family dilates into Canada. Frank Carlucci, chairman of the Carlyle cluster from 1993 to 2003, was a member of the board of Nortel as early as 1996 and serv as chairman of Nortel in 2000-2001 Nortel had a business partnership with the Saudi Bin laden dispose through its Baud Telecommunications Company, which resold Nortel-built telecommunications equipment in Saudi Arabia.