Louise Blais, Canada’s consul general in Atlanta, has been appointed ambassador and deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.
She’ll be tasked with implementing Canada’s priorities for Agenda 2030, a UN initiative aiming at promoting sustainable development globally, including elements of poverty reduction and environmental responsibility.
Her last day in Atlanta is Sept. 8. Ms. Blais tweeted that Nadia Theodore, executive director for the deputy minister of trade in Ottawa, will be her successor.
Ms. Blais has been an outspoke proponent of enhancing, rather than upending, the deep trading relationship between the U.S., Canada and Mexico driven by the North American Free Trade Agreement. She has been seen speaking to legislators around the Southeast U.S., covering a six-state region from her base in Atlanta.
Ms. Blais was also a guest speaker at one of Global Atlanta’s Consular Conversations earlier this year, where she discussed the outcome of the initial meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Donald Trump. She also addressed fault lines in bilateral trade relations, lessons she has learned as a woman in a male-dominated field and much more.
She also last year helped launch a Women in Business North America Summit that will once again bring leaders from across Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to Atlanta this October.
The veteran diplomat started as an art-theft analyst at Interpol but has also held postings in France and Japan. She first came to Atlanta in 2014, replacing Steve Brereton. Read her bio here.
Global Atlanta plans to do a final interview with Ms. Blais before her departure.
Read the summary of the Consular Conversation here: Women Entrepreneurship a Bridge for Uncertain U.S.-Canada Relations
Follow Ms. Blaise on Twitter here.
The Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Diplomacy Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Diplomacy newsletters.
