Andrew Caddell retired from Global Affairs Canada in July of 2017, concluding twenty years of service in the Government of Canada. He was most recently Senior Policy Advisor, North America Policy and Relations – Mexico with Global Affairs Canada. He was previously Director of Communications to the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador; prior to that he worked in the Consular division of DGAC. He is currently Executive Director of the Scottish Society of Ottawa.
He joined the Department in 2001, working in roles of increasing responsibility in the Development, Trade, Policy, Africa and United Nations divisions and served abroad as Second Secretary in Delhi in 2009. He holds a Master's degree in Journalism and a B.A. in Political Science from Carleton University and is fluently bilingual in English and French.
He lived in Geneva, Switzerland from 1995 to 2000, and read the morning news for Radio 74, worked at the World Health Organization as Advocacy and Information Officer and served as a manager for UNICEF in Geneva, Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Skopje (Macedonia).
In Canada, he was the Director of Communications for the Canadian Minister of Public Works and Government Services from 1994 to 1995 and from 1990 to 1994 was the Director of Public Affairs for the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) in Montreal.
His expertise in the media dates back to his work as a broadcast journalist in Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, St. John's, and Calgary from 1975 to 1981. He has lectured extensively on Canadian foreign policy and taught communications courses abroad. He has been published in the prestigious Canadian International Council “Behind the Headlines” series, in Policy Options magazine and on the op-ed pages of the Montreal Gazette, Globe and Mail and St. John’s Telegram. In 2012, he published a book of articles and interviews with leaders in the UN system and donated it to Carleton University. In 2015, he published the first edition of “The Goal,” a collection of short stories on hockey. A revised version was published in 2017.
In public life, he was a Town Councillor in Montreal West from 1989 to 1993 and has stood for office federally and provincially. Between 1980 and 1986 he was an advisor to ministers in the Government of Canada, Ontario and to the opposition leaders in Quebec and Newfoundland. He was an organizer for the “Non” campaign in the 1980 Quebec referendum.
Andrew Caddell has always been active in the community. He sponsors the “Pip” award for alumni of YMCA Kanawana in memory of his father and son. He is a member of the Conseil d'administration du Musée de Kamouraska; and on the board of the Atlantic Charter Foundation.
He has coached and managed minor hockey and soccer teams in Ottawa, climbed several mountains in the Canadian Rockies, cycled most of Canada, played semi-pro American football in Switzerland, ran the Ottawa Half-Marathon three times and plays hockey twice a week. He is married to Elaine Feldman and the father of three children, James (1973-2005), Emily and Jack.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS BY ANDREW CADDELL
The notwithstanding clause has long passed its best-before date
Outside Quebec, French is in decline
The decline of French in Quebec is a nationalist myth
