November 25, 1997 No. 197

DIPLOMATIC APPOINTMENT

Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy announces the appointment of Leonard J. Edwards as Ambassador to Japan.

Biographical Note

Leonard J. Edwards (BA, University of Saskatchewan, 1967; MA [History], University of Saskatchewan, 1969) joined the Department of External Affairs in 1969. He served abroad in Saigon, Hanoi and Ankara, as well as with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretariat in Brussels and with the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations at Geneva. From 1991 to 1994, he served as Ambassador to the Republic of Korea. In Ottawa, Mr. Edwards has held a number of positions, including Deputy Executive Director and subsequently Executive Director, Summits Management Office, with responsibility for the organization of the 1988 and 1995 Economic Summits and the 1987 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. He has also served as Director General, Corporate Management Bureau (1988-91) and Assistant Deputy Minister, Asia Pacific (1994-96). Since 1996, Mr. Edwards has been Assistant Deputy Minister for Trade and Economic Policy, with special responsibility, as Canada's senior APEC official, for preparing this week's APEC Economic Leaders' meeting in Vancouver. Mr. Edwards is married to Margaret E. McDonald and they have two children. He succeeds Donald Campbell.

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