‘2 Peoples With Interchangeable Parts’ : Maverick U.S. Envoy Leaves Ottawa Fuming

Paul H. Robinson Jr., the U.S. ambassador to Canada, says what he thinks, and what he thinks does not always make the Canadians happy.

In four years here, Robinson, 55, a millionaire Chicago insurance broker, has ridiculed one of Canada’s major political parties, disparaged the spending habits of Canadians, criticized Canada’s willingness and ability to defend itself and bitterly attacked some of the Canadian government’s economic policies.

In the view of those who feel that Canada’s greatest challenge is maintaining its identity, he committed his worst sin when he said that Americans and Canadians are “two peoples with interchangeable parts.”

This sort of thing has resulted in demands for Robinson’s recall, in public condemnations on the floor of the House of Commons, in anger and frustration among Canadian intellectuals, and in a bruising fight with Canada’s largest newspaper.

A liberal American magazine ranked Robinson second on a list of America’s 10 worst ambassadors. The Council on Hemispheric Affairs called Robinson a “yahoo” who treats Canada as “little more than a banana republic.”

Points With Pride

For all that, with his resignation due to become effective in September, Robinson looks back with satisfaction and pride at what he sees as making a contribution to restoring friendship between the two countries.

“I feel honored,” he said in an interview. “I was the man on the ground. I came at the worst of times and am leaving at the best of times. . . . When I got here they were burning the (U.S.) flag across the street (in front of Parliament), and I had to do something.”

Robinson dismisses his critics here and at home as “socialists, including the (Canadian) New Democratic Party, and others who have missed the boat.”

“They don’t represent the Canadian people,” he said.

Even with his brusque and, at times, blunt manner--he once told the deputy managing editor of the Toronto Star to “shove off”--Robinson is a hard man to dislike.

His clothes are as conservative as his politics, but he is far from being the stiff and distant type that is often found serving as ambassador in an important capital. In private conversation, he talks about baseball and makes jokes at his own expense.

When he came to Ottawa, Robinson had no experience in foreign affairs. The ambassadorship was his reward for having been a supporter of President Reagan and a fund-raiser for Reagan’s campaigns.

He defends himself, but without bitterness, and he works hard at his job. He estimates that he has given more than 125 speeches in Canada, has visited every province of this huge country, even reaching the North Pole, and has never missed a chance to explain and promote the interests of Reagan.

He has done this even if it meant lecturing Canadians on their own affairs. He once said that Canada “spends too much on social services,” a particularly sharp remark in a country that sees it as one of government’s main responsibilities to provide universal social and welfare benefits.

Robinson described as “rubbish” a Canadian program to convert to the metric system, which at the time was compulsory, and he suggested that Canada’s effort to define itself as something more than an extension of the United States is all right “as long as you don’t take it too seriously.”

His critics think Robinson has a simple-minded, black-and-white view of the world. His military experience is limited--he was a lieutenant (j.g.) in the Navy during the Korean War--but his critics say he sees himself as a military expert with special insight into the East-West confrontation.

Criticizes Canadian Navy

Robinson has criticized Canada for allowing its navy, once the fourth-largest in the world, to deteriorate to the point where, as he puts it, it could not defend the St. Lawrence Seaway, let alone its coastline.

He has called for a larger Canadian army with more troops in Europe, and he has said that even the 100 or so new F-18 warplanes recently purchased are seriously underarmed.

He has complained that too many Canadian leaders do not understand the threat to the industrialized world from the Soviet Union. Robinson once told a group of reporters that they spent too much time worrying about acid rain and not enough time on the Russian threat.

Robinson has raged against Canadian economic nationalism, particularly in terms of energy and import policies.

He has been a constant critic of a plan instituted by the government of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau that forced every potential foreign investor to justify its presence in Canada as being in the country’s interest. This, Robinson said, was “nit-picking.”

He was bitter about another Trudeau policy, which made U.S. and other foreign oil companies pay royalties retroactively to the government for oil they discovered.

Much of what Robinson complained about has changed under the government of Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, a man Robinson likes and admires. For example, there is an effort to increase military spending.

The ambassador takes credit, indirectly, for some of these changes.

“People are grateful,” he said, “for my having said what I said. The relationship has improved. We hadn’t been telling them what was on our mind.”

Last fall’s election here, he said, “was as much a referendum (on U.S.-Canadian relations) as could be possible.”