Foreign Influence
It's been two years since he stepped down from his lofty post, but former U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins is still on a natural high, enamored with the job he held for almost four years.
Granted, Wilkins occupied one of the most prestigious jobs in the world, that of American Ambassador to Canada, personally appointed by the man to whom Wilkins refers proudly as "My President," George W. Bush.
David Wilkins caught the attention of the administration after he served as South Carolina Chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004.
"I pinched myself every day," says Ambassador Wilkins now.
"I got up every morning, I said to myself, 'Hey, I get to represent the United States. Pretty high honor — don't screw it up,'" Wilkins says today, still joyously reveling in the job that catapulted him from tiny South Carolina onto the world stage.
Wilkins' office is festooned with American flags, photographs of himself with American and Canadian soldiers, Presidents and Premiers. If you cut David Wilkins, he will bleed red, white and blue. He is that patriotic.
Wilkins says he enjoyed every moment of his time as Ambassador but admits initially he had some challenges overcoming what he called "the dumb Southerner stereotype."
"When I was first appointed, the press reaction in Canada was, 'Who is this guy? Bush appointed some Southern redneck who knows nothing about us.' The short answer was, I didn't know much about Canada, but I was determined to learn everything that I could."
So for the first six months, Wilkins says he "traveled to every province, every small town, every corner of Canada, and when I got through, I knew more about Canada and had seen more of the country than most Canadians." Wilkins also developed a deep respect and admiration for the country in which he was posted.
"I also learned to have a greater appreciation of my own country than I ever have had before. I got to see the United States through the eyes of others. I realized we're always subject to criticism, but the bottom line is that we do more good than any other country in the world. I also learned that it's vital to be yourself and that relationships are important."
"My goal was to be 100 percent accessible," says Wilkins. "Ninety percent of my job was just showing up — for everything."
As American Ambassador, Wilkins was integral in resolving trade issues that had plagued American-Canadian relations for years, among them the softwood lumber trade dispute and the mad cow disease controversy that resulted in the ban of Canadian beef shipped to America.
With the change in the presidential administration, Wilkins and his wife Susan have returned to Greenville, his hometown, and where he and his family always planned to live.
Ambassador Wilkins is now a partner in the respected Southern law firm of Nelson-Mullins, and has moved into an office overlooking Greenville's downtown.
His new office is not an elegant old mansion in Ottawa, and the Royal Canadian Mounties don't chauffer him around anymore. Wilkins grudgingly admits he misses some of those perks, but "my wife Susan helped me get over that real quick, she ordered me to take out the garbage on the first night we got back in town."
It's that kind of self-deprecating humor, combined with gravity when necessary, that has helped Wilkins affect compromise among parties that might not ordinarily be willing to work together.
With a history of affecting such compromise in his 25-year political career as SC legislator and longtime Speaker of the SC House of Representatives, Wilkins was recently tapped to become head of newly-elected Governor Nikki Haley's transition team.
"The Governor of South Carolina has to be a salesperson," he says. "She has the energy, the enthusiasm, but her biggest challenge will be the economy, creating jobs and bringing in more businesses, and the $800 million dollar budget shortfall we here are facing."
While Wilkins has stepped down from the national stage, he still admits to having concerns about American energy policies and the threat of terrorism.
Regarding the latter, he says, "My concern as we get further away from 9/11 is that we forget, we let our guard down and we get lax. We need to be ever vigilant."
He firmly believes South Carolina's biggest priorities now should be the two troublesome E's — Education and Economic Development — but he admits he doesn't have any quick answers.
"Educational funding — I grappled with that for 11 years as Speaker. I don't have a handy answer, and I believe there's no substitute for parental involvement, but you can't mandate that," he says.
Wilkins says he would also advocate less protectionism in America. "Slogans like 'Buy American' adversely affect us," he asserts.
"Few people here realize that fully 21 percent of our oil comes from Canada, and South Carolina would be an ideal trade partner with Canada. There are a lot of similarities."
Wilkins' mission now is to further and firm up relationships he made while serving in Canada and to promote increased trade with that country, and with his Canadian contacts.