Deborah Lyons is the latest addition to the long list of high-level officials being chosen by President Obama for his “female cabinet.” She is a career Foreign Service officer who served as the assistant secretary of state for policy in the George W. Bush administration. She also served as a senior adviser to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. But it is her time in Africa that raises eyebrows and perhaps explains the reasons she has been nominated to be the next ambassador to Kenya. The fact that she is a woman and that she is from Canada doesn’t help her credentials to become an effective “female ambassador.”
Deborah Lyons was Canada’s representative to Israel during the Peace Movement era. Prior, to that she had been Canada’s representative to Afghanistan. She was also the deputy director of mission at the Embassy of Canada in Afghanistan.
During the early days of the Afghan war, according to accounts, both President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Trudeau discussed the possibility of deploying members of the Canadian Forces into combat in support of US and NATO efforts in Afghanistan. However, according to a May 2021 article in the Globe and Mail, Mr. Trudeau said, “I haven’t taken a decision on that yet.” No date has been set for deploying troops. The possibility existed that Canadian Forces personnel in Afghanistan would be asked to fight in a theatre of operations that involved US military activity.