The #cdnfp Twitterati: Who We Wish Would Tweet More
Louise Arbour
President and CEO, International Crisis Group | @louise_arbour
A former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Arbour now heads the International Crisis Group, one of the premier organizations working on conflict prevention and resolution. She is an authoritative voice in this area.
Lloyd Axworthy
President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Winnipeg | @lloydaxworthy
As minister of foreign affairs during the Chrétien years, Axworthy was instrumental in bringing about the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. The Twitterverse could use a little more of his soft power.
Maude Barlow
Chairperson, Council of Canadians | @maudebarlow
Despite having zero tweets to her name, environmentalist and activist Barlow has managed to collect over a thousand followers on Twitter. Obviously, Canadians want to hear what she has to say. As a former advisor on water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly, we think she would bring a welcome angle to the #cdnfp Twitterverse.
Michael Ignatieff
Academic, author and former politician | @m_ignatieff
As perhaps Canada’s best-known public intellectual, Ignatieff has never been one to shy away from voicing his opinions in print. We’d love it if he would do the same on Twitter more often.
Canadian Ministers with Foreign Policy Portfolios
We included Minister Baird in our Twitterati list, but we’d like to see more from him and his cabinet colleagues. Ministers Julian Fantino (International Cooperation), Ed Fast (International Trade and Asia-Pacific Gateway), Peter Penashue (Intergovernmental Affairs), Diane Ablonczy (Foreign Affairs (Americas and Consular Affairs)) and Bernard Valcourt (La Francophonie) could all boost their Twitter presence, with a bigger focus on their ministerial portfolios. We recommend they chat with Twitter-master @TonyclementCPC. And all of the above applies to Foreign Affairs critics Dominic Leblanc (Liberal) and Jean-François Fortin (Bloc Québécois).
