Last week, I posted an open letter from former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy to Condoleeza Rice (available here).

Following the sea of positive responses, Dr. Axworthy has written an article in today's Winnipeg Free Press responding directly to those who sent in messages of support. The title of this morning's article is "Blog Diplomacy - Why not bypass the Bushies and talk directly to Americans via the Net?".

Rather than post the full text, I've posted a link to the story here (no subscription needed). Thanks to the Winnipeg Free Press for making this available outside their regular subscription-only site. And thanks also to the editors at the Free Press who chose to publish the original letter, and have followed up twice now. I'm very impressed by what they've done, and they deserve all the credit they can get for it. Anyone who's in need of a little positive reinforcement this morning would do well to read this story.

Last Thursday, I posted an article written by Dr. Lloyd Axworthy (a former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs). In the article (which you can read here), Dr. Axworthy delivered an honest and open critique of the current American administration.

The reaction here was inspiring, to say the least. People seemed quite taken by the idea that someone like Dr. Axworthy could be so honest. Lots of great comments were posted in here, and the article seemed to spread very quickly. I even received a few emails linking to my original post by relatives and friends in the US!

Today, the Winnipeg Free Press published a story on the reaction to Dr. Axworthy's article, including a mention of Daily Kos. It doesn't show up in the online version of the story, but the print version included a number of very positive comments from folks in here (more in the extended).

Update [2005-3-7 12:18:35 by zander]:I've added the full text of the Paul Celucci flip-flop article as well

(My first diary entry - be kind!)

Update [2005-3-3 11:43:17 by zander]:As recommended, I've retitled the diary.

Lloyd Axworthy is a former Foreign Minister of Canada. He held the portfolio in the late 1990's, and stood on the left wing of Canada's governing Liberal Party. Some of his achievements while holding the Foreign Affairs portfolio included driving Canada's involvement in the Ottawa Protocol (the international treaty to ban landmines). In addition, he was involved in the establishment of the International Criminal Court and drew attention to the issue of child soldiers in Africa.

He is now the President of the University of Winnipeg, where he's working to establish a "Global College", including a Centre for Human Rights and Global Studies.

But I'm not here to trumpet his achievements (as notable as they may be). This morning, in the Winnipeg Free Press (my local newspaper) Dr. Axworthy published a very blunt open letter to Condoleeza Rice on the topic of missile defence and Canada/US relations. As web access to the paper is limited to subscribers, I thought I'd post the full text in the extended entry.

Enjoy!