# Ambassador to Canada....WTH America?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 9, 2017, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424 "2017-02-09T23:35:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/1 "2017-02-09T23:35:47Z")
Sarah Palin?
What. The. Hell. ?
You know, we’ve been pretty understanding, always willing to help out, more than happy to leave you to your…well…antics?
But I feel you may have gone a step too far…
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### Author:  [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/2 "2017-02-09T23:56:06Z")
Well, she could see Canada from the _other_ side of her yard, so she’s an expert! You’re welcome!
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### Author:  [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/3 "2017-02-10T00:06:39Z")
Canada, can you do us a solid and keep her busy and out of the way so she isn’t messing up more fragile and unstable things in our government? I mean, we’ve got our hand full here. A little help?
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/4 "2017-02-10T00:06:43Z")
[Canadians Freak at Prospect of Ambassador Sarah Palin](http://www.newser.com/story/238113/canadians-badly-want-sarah-palin-to-stay-in-alaska.html)
> [@](#):
>
> [S]uch a role would force Palin to “give up her lucrative speeches and television appearances, which have helped make her an estimated $12 million,” columnist Andrew Cohen writes at the [_Ottawa Citizen_](http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/cohen-sarah-palin-could-bring-her-carnival-show-here-as-ambassador). He is decidedly not in favor of the idea, adding Palin would also “have to learn to speak one of our official languages,” meaning English or French…"
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### Author:  [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/5 "2017-02-10T00:11:00Z")
This all could have been avoided with an official apology for not leaving Justin Bieber out for the wolves at birth…but noooooo
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/6 "2017-02-10T00:15:45Z")
(Hey! Justin Beiber was just a prepubescent kid with guitar on YouTube, until y’all got your hands on him. You made that monster. No backsies !)
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/7 "2017-02-10T07:20:56Z")
Nickelback then?
Is this speculative or actually happening?
I’m sure there are some difficulties of the job I’m not aware of, but of all the government positions someone can have, this one seems pretty harmless. Maybe not a complete sinecure, but its not like Sec State or Ambassador to Afghanistan.
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### Author:  [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/8 "2017-02-10T07:55:34Z")
Told you not to piss off Trump.
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### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/9 "2017-02-10T08:14:19Z")
Speculative, at this point.
It may not be a bad idea. I can just see her communiques to Washington now: “They have cities and states–oops, I mean _provinces_–and their own laws and everything! Canadians don’t have socialized healthcare–who knew? Their Governor-General Queen-Guy spoke English to me, not French! And most Canadians understand me when I speak American! They have their own kind of football that is kind of like ours. But oh boy, don’t tell them that hockey is not a major sport.”
Maybe the US would finally learn something about Canada from a Sarah Palin ambassadorship. She’s not a diplomat, but she would have no choice but to learn that Canada is not the socialist backwoods boogeyman that her government thinks it is.
😃
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/10 "2017-02-10T08:38:43Z")
Seriously, according to diplomatic protocols, can a host country refuse to accept an ambassador from another country? And if this is theoretically possible, has it ever happened between any two countries, or would it be considered an unacceptable snub?
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/11 "2017-02-10T08:40:05Z")
> [@Spoons](#):
>
> But oh boy, don’t tell them that hockey is not a major sport.
Or curling too, I imagine.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/12 "2017-02-10T08:42:34Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> Seriously, according to diplomatic protocols, can a host country refuse to accept an ambassador from another country? And if this is theoretically possible, has it ever happened between any two countries, or would it be considered an unacceptable snub?
Yes, the host country can: it can just declare the ambassador a “persona non grata” (unwelcome person), and that’s it. Yes, it happens all the time, and what the sending country does is up to it.
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/13 "2017-02-10T12:40:15Z")
My question is; would she, or would she not, be immune from prosecution for breaking hate speech laws when running her mouth about policy she disagrees with?
I’m thinking she would be immune! She could spend all her time slagging gay marriages, socialized medicine, Muslims, immigration policy etc. There’s a fair bit of room to cross the line in those topics for someone who likes to ‘keep it real’ and speaks sometimes without a lot of thought.
I don’t think they’ll pick her, in the end, but I think the next name they put forward will seem much less offensive by comparison, no matter what their experience or politics might be! So this ‘near pick’ will have accomplished it’s objective, I’m guessing.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/14 "2017-02-10T12:57:19Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> Seriously, according to diplomatic protocols, can a host country refuse to accept an ambassador from another country? And if this is theoretically possible, has it ever happened between any two countries, or would it be considered an unacceptable snub?
Brazil rejected Israel’s choice of ambassador [in 2015](http://www.timesofisrael.com/brazilian-official-says-dani-dayan-rejected-as-ambassador/). The Pope has rejected proposed ambassadors for being gay or pro-choice. (This is incredibly precious, IMO, as it’s already the height of indulgence for a country to send “ambassadors” to a church headquarters. Beggars, choosers, etc. But it does happen.)
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/15 "2017-02-10T13:39:05Z")
> [@Giles](#):
>
> Yes, it happens all the time, …
How frequently? Besides Brazil’s rejection of the Israeli ambassador, the only recent example I know is Britain’s rejection of Trump’s choice for British Ambassador to the U.S. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/16 "2017-02-10T13:41:10Z")
> [@septimus](#):
>
> How frequently? Besides Brazil’s rejection of the Israeli ambassador, the only recent example I know is Britain’s rejection of Trump’s choice for British Ambassador to the U.S. :smack:
It wouldn’t normally be a _public_ feud.
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/17 "2017-02-10T14:06:37Z")
Australia once refused the choice of a (then) Burmese ambassador.
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### Author:  [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/18 "2017-02-10T16:31:26Z")
> [@elbows](#):
>
> I’m thinking she would be immune! She could spend all her time slagging gay marriages, socialized medicine, Muslims, immigration policy etc. There’s a fair bit of room to cross the line in those topics for someone who likes to ‘keep it real’ and speaks sometimes without a lot of thought.
If she were to do that I would hope that our gov’t would send her packing and politely request a new ambassador from the USA.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/19 "2017-02-10T17:26:55Z")
> [@elbows](#):
>
> My question is; would she, or would she not, be immune from prosecution for breaking hate speech laws when running her mouth about policy she disagrees with?
1. Of course the Ambassador of a country has diplomatic immunity.
2. Of course Canada does not make it illegal to state one’s opinion on matters of politics. It is not “hate speech” to say you disagree with universal health insurance or immigration policy, for Christ’s sake.
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambassador-to-canada-wth-america/779424/20 "2017-02-10T17:37:23Z")
Just to be clear, I didn’t say disagreement with policy WAS hate speech. I was asking IF her vocalizing strayed into hate speech, could she be prosecuted?
(But you knew that, I’m sure.)
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