As all you smart-type people know, the first rule of international diplomacy is this: Always have a tuxedo close at hand for last-minute gala receptions. I know this from watching spy movies.
The second rule is this: If you’re going to bad-mouth your boss on Facebook, don’t leave your account set to “Public.” I know this because it just happened.
Steven Rheault-Kihara is the guy who broke the second rule. Canada’s public relations attache to Thailand, who works out of the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok, was just outed as a serial bad-mouther when, for some reason, his Facebook Wall stopped being For Your Eyes Only.
Readers around the world got a look inside Rheault-Kihara’s private life in a big way, reading as he lambasted the Thai government — not something you want to do when you’re a PR guy in their country — and described his need to party. This wasn’t confined to his friends. Everybody could read it. And when they did, they found things like this:
- On his boss, Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “As much as I think he’s a terrible leader, I thought that Stephen Harper gave a good show last night.” (Harper had just performed on an Ottawa stage with Yo-Yo Ma.)
- On Harper and his then-rival, the leader of the Liberal Party: “If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose between (Stephen) Harper or (Stephane) Dion as PM, my answer is simple: Pull the trigger, please.” (Canada was facing the possibility of a snap election.
- On the media: “Quoting from an audit report is the laziest form of journalism, but then again, no-one ever accused Greg Weston of being a journalist.” (He’s wrong; everyone knows this crap I do is the laziest form of journalism. Sheesh.)
When are people going to learn how to control their online presence? This kind of thing happens to people all the time, but rarely with this level of political WTFness. There has been no word from Harper’s people as to what he thinks of all this, but our PM does not suffer fools gladly; I suspect Rheault-Kihara might be looking for work tomorrow. Well, at least he has a tux.
Rheault-Kihara has yet to acknowledge what has happened, and I expect there will be something along the lines of “My Facebook represents my private life, not my public life, yada yada yada.” That doesn’t wash here. If you want privacy, if you want to be able to express your opinions about politics and politicians, fine. Don’t go into public service. And if you do, keep your trap shut. This is a lesson he has learned far too late.
In related news, I just sent my C.V. to the Canadian Embassy in Thailand.
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