Shooting straight, it appears, is now a diplomatic asset.
Everyone on Parliament Hill likes Kevin Vickers, the tall, quietly friendly Sergeant-at-Arms, and he's been hailed as a hero in thwarting Hill gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau in October. So political parties full of goodwill rushed to issue kudos when he was appointed Canada's ambassador to Ireland on Thursday.
But there's no denying it's a peculiar kind of diplomatic appointment. And it now counts as one of several where Prime Minister Stephen Harper has reached outside the ranks of the foreign service to pick ambassadors, sometimes out of left field.
Mr. Vickers, 58, is a former senior RCMP officer, who rose to the rank of chief superintendent. As such, he's the second former Mountie appointed by Mr. Harper to an ambassador's post, after he named the former head of his own security detail, Bruno Saccomani, as envoy to Jordan in 2013. No other PM had named one before.
He has also looked at the military ranks, asking former chief of defence staff Walt Natynczyk to take on the post of ambassador to Israel, before the retired general instead took a job heading the Canadian Space Agency.
But Mr. Natynczyk could count a wealth of international-relations experience on his curriculum vitae. Mr. Vickers and Mr. Saccomani could not. And the truth is that it is only Mr. Vickers's celebrated status that makes this seem anything but a strange choice.
Other PMs have appointed ambassadors from outside the foreign service, of course – senior bureaucrats and especially political friends. But Mr. Harper, who evidently doesn't value the diplomatic corps' skill set, has also made a few from outside those categories: After Mr. Natynczyk turned him down, the PM appointed lawyer Vivian Bercovici as envoy to Tel Aviv, finding an ambassador in tune with his pro-Israel views.
In big embassies, political appointees can add value. They often understand politicized capitals such as Washington, and might get a hearing there because they have the ear of the PM back home. Mr. Harper sent former finance minister Michael Wilson to Washington, former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell to London and his own former foreign affairs minister, Lawrence Cannon, to Paris.
There's also reward. Another former Harper government minister, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, is ambassador to UNESCO in Paris. Mr. Vickers will replace another former minister, Loyola Hearn, in Ireland – and he, in turn, succeeded former Tory PEI premier Pat Binns.
In fact, Mr. Vickers is heading to a traditional perch for political appointees. Ambassadors to Ireland have included Jean Chrétien's ex-minister Ron Irwin and Pierre Trudeau minister Edgar Benson, among others. The job used to come with an 11-acre estate outside Dublin near Killiney Bay and near the home of U2 singer Bono, although that was sold in Mr. Binns's day.
Mr. Vickers's résumé doesn't really match the job. Even experience as a manager of a large staff doesn't fit: Dublin's embassy has roughly a dozen staff, according to a diplomat who served there.
Mr. Vickers's posting is a reward. His bravery in the shootout that brought Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau down in a hail of bullets has been widely praised. That has overshadowed the lapses in the Hill security he oversaw, now being examined by the Ontario Provincial Police. The celebration of his courage has made rewarding him popular. But an ambassadorship is not an obvious fit.
Still, it's unlikely to have much downside. The Irish, according to the former diplomat, will probably sigh because they have a career foreign service that expects the same. But it's been a Canadian patronage plum in part because it's a low-priority posting where relations are usually smooth. And U.S. ambassadors there, as in many places, are often blatantly rewarded political appointees.
In Jordan, Mr. Saccomani, according to one source who has followed his work, understands security in a country where security is the big issue, and gets things done, though he doesn't have deep knowledge of the complex politics or the polish to win over the burghers of Amman.
Mr. Vickers will get through. He will have many well-wishers. But his appointment is an unusual mismatch, offering the post of a diplomat – a calling Mr. Harper doesn't particularly esteem – as reward to someone who stands on guard, a calling he clearly admires.