{"id":109739,"date":"2017-08-03T22:58:03","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T02:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=109739"},"modified":"2017-08-03T22:58:03","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T02:58:03","slug":"trump-has-an-ambassador-to-canada-kelly-knight-craft-confirmed-by-u-s-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/03\/trump-has-an-ambassador-to-canada-kelly-knight-craft-confirmed-by-u-s-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump has an ambassador to Canada: Kelly Knight Craft confirmed by U.S. Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"g-VMmkMER3pa5FEDR-Y8pQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/819434764\" target=\"_blank\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'g-VMmkMER3pa5FEDR-Y8pQ',sig:'4rvSOENWl3_bIy_BBdCLQ97mUACGAJifM1ScPrWYyk4=',w:'466px',h:'594px',items:'819434764',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON\u2014Donald Trump&#8217;s ambassador is heading to Canada: the United States Senate has swiftly confirmed Kelly Knight Craft, endorsing her nomination in time for her to begin work as major trade negotiations start.<\/p>\n<p>The confirmation was announced Thursday by the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell.<\/p>\n<p>He applauded the appointment of his fellow Kentuckian, whom he knows through politics back in their home state, and whom he publicly endorsed during her congressional hearing two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>That swift two-week turnaround is faster than how the Senate handled the last ambassador&#8217;s appointment, as it allowed the nomination of Barack Obama&#8217;s pick Bruce Heyman to languish for months before proceeding.<\/p>\n<p>It came after a breezy confirmation hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Anything but a grilling, Knight Craft was asked two questions about basketball, and others about Russian election-meddling and NATO in her congressional hearing. She declared that she believed Russia interfered in the U.S. election.<\/p>\n<p>She was also asked about promoting U.S. exports to Canada, and mentioned softwood lumber, dairy and poultry as priority areas.<\/p>\n<p>This appointment allows Knight Craft to start work at a sensitive moment in Canada-U.S. relations _ the two countries and Mexico will start negotiating an update to the North American Free Trade Agreement on Aug. 16.<\/p>\n<p>Knight Craft is a longtime philanthropist, wife of a Kentucky coal magnate, and supporter of Republican causes who organized inaugural events for the state&#8217;s governor and for President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Canada&#8217;s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland offered her congratulations on Twitter Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look forward to working with you to strengthen #CanUS ties!,\u201d she tweeted.\u201dGreat news, congratulations,\u201d Canada&#8217;s ambassador to Washington, David MacNaughton, tweeted Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Our countries&#8217;) partnership is more important than ever, see you soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new ambassador&#8217;s state governor sang her praises during a recent meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. At a governors&#8217; conference in Rhode Island, Matt Bevin told Trudeau: \u201cYou&#8217;re going to have a good colleague&#8230; You&#8217;re getting someone who&#8217;s gracious, and very well-networked. Very respected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement Thursday, McConnell saluted the new ambassador.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur two nations share much more than a border; we have a heritage of trade and security relations that benefit us both,\u201d said the Republican leader.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a proven advocate for our national interests, Kelly will use her position to continue the long history of friendship between the United States and Canada. I appreciate her willingness to serve our country once again, and I know that she will make Kentucky proud.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images WASHINGTON\u2014Donald Trump&#8217;s ambassador is heading to Canada: the United States Senate has swiftly confirmed Kelly Knight &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":29094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18,16,483],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","category-news","category-politics","mauthors-alexander-panetta","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}