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Video Interview (In French only with English transcripts)
Note: The opinions presented are not necessarily those of the Government of Canada.
 The Canadian advantage abroad
| 4 minutes | QuickTime |
(Video players are available here: QuickTime | Windows Media)
Transcript:
The Canadian advantage abroad
My name is Marc Leblanc. I’m from New Brunswick. I work for the federal government in Ottawa. My first career experience was in 1998. It was in Burkina Faso, in Ouagadougou, the capital, and it was a really great personal and professional experience. I say personal because when you’re in a country like that you run into a lot of situations and there are lots of things that happen. The surroundings are so different, it changes you a little, but in a good way because you understand people better. You manage to work better with those people. That’s the personal side, but also the professional side.
On the professional side, you learn to get to know people, you learn how to “communicate”—which is perhaps not so easy because here in Canada it’s a bit different. We tend to get straight to the point, while the people there, you have to talk, introduce yourself, chat a lot. You can’t go straight to the point. You really have to take your time and get to know them before working with them.
The experience I had with their perception of Canadians is excellent. First, Canada is not seen as a colonizer. We aren’t seen as opportunists or people who take advantage of other countries or exploit them. So they accept us a little like a sort of brotherhood. We don’t have any connections with them, we go there, help them, and they think that’s great. Whereas there are other countries that are already there and have settled there, and there’s always been a connection with that country. But Canada is a new country, so it had no opportunity to colonize. People appreciate that we aren’t going there to exploit them, we’re there to help them. They often view Canada as a very good country in terms of human rights, the economy…
It’s already given me a lot. First, that’s what took me to Ottawa to work with the federal government. I realized that Canada does a lot more than I had thought, not only for Canadians but internationally as well. This internship enabled me to better understand Canada’s role in the world and what we offer other countries. We’re not obligated to do what we do, we do it for the good of the Earth because, basically, we’re all human beings.
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