I have uncovered a government plot, Pumpkins, spinning around our country’s connection to the UNWTO. I know. You are probably saying to yourself “Huh? The UNWho?”
Not too many folks give a minister’s spit about the UNWTO (It’s the United Nations World Tourism Organization for those of you attached to ministerial saliva). Nobody really knows what they do, and only 2 people care. One of them is our very own Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird (And another thing. I am amply more suited to hold that government portfolio. Do you have any idea how many foreign affairs I’ve had?) The other is a well known African tyrant by the name Robert Mugabe.
Baird cares so much about this tourism body that he has stooped to a bald headed, pants down, fib.
I have, dear Pumpkins, in my possession, an official UNWTO document dated May 2011, in which Canada quietly announced its withdrawal from the UNWTO to take effect June 1, 2012. (Apparently you have to state you are withdrawing well in advance of actually pulling out. So much more civilized than the old “oops, ha, it slipped out”).
That was one year ago. But yesterday, among rumours that Robert Mugabe was appointed to the UNWTO, Baird jumps in front cameras, guns a blazin’, saying that if Mugabe is involved with UNWTO, Canada will withdraw! This Bairdian tantrum came in the nick of time.
The Mugabe rumour arose the day before the year-old UNWTO withdrawal announcement went public. I love coincidences.
