In late 2004, while still in his capacity as U.S. ambassador, Paul Cellucci paid a visit to our editorial board. And, true to form, he gave us a splashy front-page story.

Under the headline "Cellucci assails pot law," readers were informed by the Americans' man in Ottawa that decriminalizing marijuana would force U.S. customs officers to take a harder line toward Canadians, creating backlogs at the border. As was often the case, Cellucci proved to be a lightning rod for controversy - giving fodder to talk-show hosts and pundits, eliciting angry letters and prompting a rebuke from then-prime minister Paul Martin that "Canada will make its own laws, pure and simple."

This week, Cellucci's successor paid us a visit. He, too, gave us a front-page story ... about why he thinks baseball is as good a sport as hockey.

It was a fun story, but to call it "splashy" would be a bit of a stretch. The fact is, we wound up talking sports with David Wilkins because he wasn't saying a whole lot about anything else.

This is bad news for journalists, who got a great ride out of Cellucci through his four-year stay. But it's good news for Canada.

Whether he was bashing our country's commitment to defence, our refusal to join the war in Iraq or our rejection of ballistic missile defence, Cellucci made for great ink. As a former politician who clearly loved the sound of his own voice, though, he was also about as undiplomatic as a diplomat can get.

The previous Liberal government, particularly under Martin, took its share of the blame for deteriorating relations between Canada and the U.S. That was well-earned: You don't have to be rabidly pro-American to recognize that it's counterproductive to openly bash the government and culture of your biggest trading partner to score points during an election campaign, or pointlessly jerk it around on an issue like missile defence. But truth be told, it was a two-way street. Cellucci's periodic outbursts weren't just a reflection of mounting cross-border tensions; they were a contributor to them.

A dyed-in-the-wool Republican plucked from his job as Speaker of the South Carolina legislature, Wilkins seemed an unlikely candidate to ease those tensions when he was appointed ambassador last year. And clearly boasting very little knowledge of the country he'd been sent to, he didn't exactly slide into the role gracefully - cavalierly proclaiming that the U.S. had no regrets about the Maher Arar debacle, then getting drawn into a war of words with the Liberals during the federal election campaign.

What we saw this week, though - and what those in Ottawa have apparently been seeing for months - was a diplomat who was diplomatic almost to a fault. In no small part, that's attributable to a new Conservative government that's decidedly more friendly toward the U.S. than the Liberals were, not to mention sweet on defence spending and sour on pot. But it's also a sign that, when American analysts speculated upon Wilkins' appointment that he'd be well-suited to a conciliatory role, they had some idea what they were talking about.

No matter who was in the Prime Minister's Office, it's impossible to imagine Cellucci giving as pointedly inoffensive a performance as Wilkins did at our meeting this week. Whenever he could, the ambassador read from talking points. When that wasn't an option, he did his best to abstain from expressing an opinion at all. As often as possible, he said nice things about Canada. And when handed opportunities to criticize us, he carefully sidestepped them.

It's entirely possible this is as much indifference as well-thought-out strategy. At one point, he acknowledged having no idea who had come up with the controversial plan to require passports or special ID cards at the border; at another, he claimed to know nothing more about ongoing softwood lumber negotiations than what the rest of us read in the papers. If that's true, we're talking about someone for whom being proactive is not the preferred option.

But whatever drives him (or doesn't), Wilkins is emerging as the right man at the right time - particularly for the Conservatives. Considering that their first instinct is to be conciliatory toward the Americans, it would be disastrous for them to have the U.S. ambassador creating a backlash with continued Canada-bashing. Happily, Wilkins is more interested in talking about baseball.