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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 001426 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR CA
SUBJECT: NEW FOREIGN MINISTER LAWRENCE CANNON 
 
REF:  OTTAWA 1394 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: On October 30, Lawrence Cannon became Canadian 
Minister of Foreign Affairs in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 
second Conservative government (reftel).  Cannon is an experienced 
and competent administrator who is likely to provide stability to a 
department that has had four ministers since the Conservatives took 
office in 2006.  Cannon appears to have the confidence of the PM to 
handle this senior portfolio and the important bilateral Canada-U.S. 
relationship; he was a Conservative Party observer at the 2008 
Democratic Convention.  End summary. 
------------------ 
A POLITICAL FAMILY 
------------------ 
 
¶2. (U) Lawrence Cannon was born on December 6, 1947 in Quebec City, 
Quebec.  The son of a francophone father and an Anglophone mother, 
Cannon is of Irish and French-Canadian descent.  The extended Cannon 
family has a history of public service and includes Supreme Court 
judges, senators, and politicians among its members.  Both of 
Cannon's grandfathers were members of Parliament.  His maternal 
grandfather served in Liberal cabinets as Minister of Pensions and 
Health in the 1930s, as well as Minister of National Defence for Air 
during World War II, when he presided over the expansion of the 
Royal Canadian Air Force.  He later became a senator. 
 
¶3. (U) Cannon graduated with a B.A. degree in political science from 
the Universit de Montral in 1971.  Between 1971 and 1976, he 
worked in the office of Quebec Liberal then-Premier Robert Bourassa 
as a political assistant.  He graduated with a Master of Business 
Administration (MBA) degree from Universit Laval in Quebec City in 
1979, and worked in the private sector as a financial analyst, 
 , 
before heading Les Radiateurs Roy Lte, the largest aftermarket 
manufacturer of radiators in Quebec, from 1981 to 1985.  From 1979 
to 1985, he was also a municipal councilor for the town of Cap 
Rouge, now a suburb of Quebec City. 
 
-------------------------------- 
A LIBERAL IN PROVINCIAL POLITICS 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) In December 1985, Cannon entered provincial politics, winning 
the riding of La Peltrie as a Liberal member of Quebec's provincial 
legislature.  As Parliamentary Assistant to the [Quebec] Minister 
for International Trade and Economic Development from 1985 to 1988, 
he participated in bilateral negotiations leading to the Canada-U.S. 
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 1988.  He held several provincial 
Cabinet positions under then-Premier Bourassa, including Foreign 
Trade and Technological Development, Tourism, Transport, and 
Communications.  He also served as Deputy Speaker of the provincial 
legislature from 1989 to 1991. 
 
 
¶5. (U) After the defeat of the Liberal government in the 1994 Quebec 
provincial election, Cannon became vice-president of Unitel (now AT 
& T Canada Corp).  At the same time, he became a founding partner of 
Group Cannon and Associates, as well as a senior consultant with GPC 
International, advising private sector clients on communications and 
public affairs.  In 2001, he re-entered municipal politics by 
winning election as councilor for the City of Gatineau (Quebec), a 
francophone community that, together with Ottawa (Ontario), makes up 
the Canadian National Capital Region. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
CHANGING COLORS: SWITCH TO THE CONSERVATIVES 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Cannon actively supported the federal Liberal leadership bid 
of Sheila Copps in 2000 in the race that Jean Chretien subsequently 
won.  Cannon switched his political allegiance from the Liberals to 
the federal Conservative Party in 2005.  In September 2005, 
Qthe federal Conservative Party in 2005.  In September 2005, 
Conservative leader -- at the time, the leader of the Official 
Opposition -- Stephen Harper appointed him deputy chief of staff and 
deputy executive director of the federal Conservative Party.  Cannon 
won the rural West Quebec riding of Pontiac handily as a 
Conservative in the January 2006 federal election, scoring an upset 
victory in a staunchly Liberal riding that had elected federal 
Liberals for all but nine years since 1935. 
 
¶7. (U) As the only member of a new crop of Quebec Conservative MPs 
-- and one of very few in the national Conservative caucus with 
experience in government -- Cannon seemed destined for a senior 
Cabinet post, possibly deputy Prime Minister, when the Conservatives 
took office in February 2006.  However, new PM Harper declined to 
name a deputy PM, and instead appointed Cannon Minister of 
Transport, Infrastructure and Communities on February 6, 2006.  In 
this federal department, Cannon was responsible for distributing 
important federal infrastructure and construction contracts 
nationwide, but from a political perspective most importantly in 
Quebec, where the Conservatives were seeking greater support. 
 
OTTAWA 00001426  002 OF 002 
 
 
Harper also appointed Cannon his political "lieutenant" -- or senior 
political minister -- for Quebec. 
 
--------------- 
MAJOR PROMOTION 
--------------- 
 
¶8. (U) In the Conservatives' second minority government following 
the October 14, 2008 election, PM Harper promoted Cannon to Minister 
of Foreign Affairs on October 30.  Observers saw the assignment as 
one of the biggest promotions in the new mandate, but Cannon had 
reportedly lobbied instead for the Industry portfolio, with added 
responsibility for Quebec regional development.  In addition to his 
senior portfolio, Harper also appointed Cannon as Vice-Chair of the 
powerful Priorities and Planning Committee of Cabinet, arguably the 
most important of all Cabinet committees.  The planning Committee 
directs government priorities and is the only one that the Prime 
Minister personally chairs.  As foreign minister, Cannon also sits 
on Cabinet Committees on Foreign Affairs and Security and on 
Afghanistan. 
 
¶9. (U) Cannon is fully fluent in French and English.  Observers 
consider him a "red" or liberal Conservative on social issues (for 
example, he strongly supports same-sex marriage), but conservative 
on fiscal matters.  He has won high marks as a competent 
administrator and as a trusted advisor to PM Harper.  He has 
travelled widely in Europe and the Americas, both in and out of 
public life.  The Conservative Party dispatched him to the 
Democratic Convention in Denver in August 2008 as an observer.  In 
2001, he was appointed to the Board of the World Commerce Institute 
and as President and General Manager of AmeriContact for the Quebec 
City Summit of the Americas in Quebec City that took place in April 
¶2001.  He is married to his second wife, Christine. 
WILKINS