From ‘Federal Government Doubles Gift-Budget for Foreign Dignitaries’ by Rebecca Lindell Postmedia News in the Vancouver Sun January 19, 2011
OTTAWA — The federal government more than doubled its spending on gifts for diplomats since 2005, with the total price tag for diplomatic baubles coming in at just over $132,000 in the last fiscal year.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade distributed 2,608 gifts worth $132,610 to foreign dignitaries in 2009-2010 on behalf of the prime minister and other ministers, figures released Wednesday by DFAIT show.
Colin Roberston, a career diplomat and a senior fellow at the Carleton’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, says that while gift-giving may be traditional, it’s still important. “It’s not that the gift is going to open the door, but the absence of a gift can be viewed as a departure from protocol and perhaps a show of bad faith,” he said.