What You Missed
Spotlight on Women in Diplomacy
In honour of Canadian women’s history month, we profiled our female Consuls General across the United States and Acting Ambassador Kirsten Hillman in a series, “Women in Diplomacy.” Susan Harper, Nadia Theodore, Phyllis Yaffe, Rachel McCormick, and Kirsten Hillman all touch on how they approach their roles as Canada’s representatives, what issues they prioritize and why, and what they think it means to be a woman in diplomacy. Our Acting Ambassador sums it up, “There are so many experiences that I have in my role that are meaningful and deeply rewarding – it is hard to mention just a few. I am proud of the mentoring role that I am able to play, inside and outside of the Embassy. I appreciate the opportunity to support women who, like me, find themselves in careers that have been largely dominated by men. Daily, I think about how I can best serve Canada and Canadians by what I do and by how I lead my team. I think about how we can best reflect the values of our country.”
Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Requires a Made-in-the-USA Solution
Earlier this month, Acting Ambassador Kirsten Hillman met with senior Administration officials on the proposed Safe Importation Action Plan. You can find the acting Ambassador’s meeting readout here, explaining “Canada represents only 2% of global pharmaceutical consumption vs. America’s 44%. In fact, the state of Florida alone spends more than all of Canada on prescription medicine. Last year, 699 million prescriptions were filled in Canada compared to 4.2 billion in the United States. Not only are we too small of a market, Canada cannot increase its domestic pharmaceutical drug supply to meet U.S. demand. Canada imports between 68-70% of our final dosage form prescription drug supply and for the remaining 30% that we do manufacture domestically – over 90% of the components come from abroad.”
Electrifying North America
The Embassy of Canada partnered with WIRES to host the WIRES International Summit on the Electric Transmission Grid, bringing together diverse organizations from both Canada and the U.S. to discuss the cross-border electricity grid of the future. The conversation focused around the vision of the North American electric grid – one that is clean, affordable, reliable, resilient, and secure. Read the takeaways from the summit.
United in Defense
In Washington, we welcomed a new Defence Attaché, Major-General Paul Ormsby, this summer. He was on hand to honour Canadian and American veterans on Remembrance Day with Acting Ambassador Hillman. In her remarks at a ceremony at the Embassy, “Who do we remember each November? … Canadians rushing to the action. It’s a familiar scene. In the Kapyong Valley during the Korean War and on the streets of Kandahar in Afghanistan, Canadians stood shoulder-to-shoulder with our Allies. But these people were more than those battles, those conflicts. They were daughters and sons, sisters and brothers, wives and husbands, mothers and fathers.” Our colleagues in Dallas took this message to heart, celebrating the 100th birthday of a local American veteran. While we thanked all those who have served this month, their service continues. Canadian Armed Forces members recently participated in a number of military and cybersecurity exercises with NATO allies. Read the latest in our United in Defence series.
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