Paul Cellucci

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Argeo Paul Cellucci (born April 24, 1948) better known as Paul Cellucci, is an American politician and diplomat, former Governor of Massachusetts, and former Ambassador to Canada.

Celluci was born in Hudson, Massachusetts on April 24, 1948 into an Italian-American political family and graduated from Boston College and Boston College Law School and Hudson Catholic High School.

He served as a member of the Massachusetts state house of representatives from 1977 to 1985. He then became a member of the Massachusetts state senate, serving from 1985 to 1991. From 1991 to 1997 he was Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, becoming the Acting Governor of Massachusetts in 1997 upon the resignation of William Weld. He was elected as governor in 1998. He is a Republican.

Cellucci weathered a political firestorm when it was revealed that he owed $750,000 of personal debt while advocating fiscal austerity. He successfully fought off a primary challenge from State Treasurer Joe Malone in 1998. In 2001 he resigned to become Ambassador to Canada. Cellucci is considered by his detractors to have been an ineffective governor who lacked vision and exercised little oversight over the Big Dig allowing massive cost overruns.

Cellucci's daughter Anne is married to a Canadian hockey player, Craig Adams.

In March 2005, Cellucci left his job as ambassador to become a vice-president of Magna Entertainment.

Controversies as ambassador

Cellucci commended how Canadians responded to 9/11, via Operation Yellow Ribbon, as well as the memorial service on Parliament Hill to honor the victims.

But in April 2003, Cellucci faced controversy when he spoke out against Canada for its lack of support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He argued America was waging war for its own security, and that the United States would "never hesitate" to support Canada in a similar circumstance.

He also earned the ire of many Canadians for his repeated warnings about the political consequences for Canada if it opted not to join the U.S. missile defence program, or chose to pass a bill decriminalizing marijuana.

These statements, frequently perceived as implied threats, caused Cellucci to be sarcastically christened "the U.S. ambassador-turned-proconsul" by former Liberal cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy in an opinion piece titled Say no to missile defence published on April 29, 2003 in The Globe and Mail. Canada has since declined to participate in the U.S. missile defence program.

Following his resignation

Cellucci officially resigned his Ambassadorship on March 17, 2005. The next day, on March 18, 2005, Magna Entertainment announced they had hired Cellucci. Magna chairman Frank Stronach said Cellucci's role will be to help reform the US regulations around horse racing and gaming.

Since leaving his position as Ambassador, Cellucci has penned a book called Unquiet Diplomacy, a memoir of his time as ambassador. In the book he praises Canada as "a truly great nation", but also sharply criticizes the government of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, with whom he repeatedly clashed.

On September 23, 2005, shortly after an interview where the current Ambassador, David Wilkins, stirred controversy over comments he made on the case of Maher Arar, Cellucci gave an interview in which he partially reversed his position on Arar.

While he was Ambassador, Cellucci had declined to participate into the inquiry into the Americans "extraordinary rendition" of Arar to Syria and the possible role of Canadian officials in the rendition. This was consistent with the Bush administration's denial that anything improper had been done, and appeared to imply Cellucci's willing acquiescence. Cellucci's substantive views on the matter may have already diverged from policy -- diplomats while in office often are ordered to carry out and defend policies they personally oppose -- but his comments were seen as a rebuke to Wilkins.

In his September interview Cellucci acknowledged, "Part of the unfairness was that we took a Canadian citizen, shipped him to a third country without consulting with Canada," apparently exonerating Canadian officials while also distancing himself from the Bush administration's various explanations of the phenomenon. This concession, however, did not explicitly take stock of the practice of extraordinary rendition itself, which could involve turning prisoners over to governments known to use torture.

The same interview revealed that Cellucci, as a private citizen, also had second thoughts about the stance he had taken as Ambassador on the Invasion of Iraq.

During the lead-up to the Invasion of Iraq, Cellucci had put pressure on Canada to join in the invasion, based on the American and UK assertions that Saddam's administration possessed a dangerous arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction. But in 2005 Cellucci acknowledged: "We’re not always right, and on that particular one it looks like we weren’t right, although we know at some point in the past he did have these weapons."

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