Derek Hudson Burney, OC (born 1939) for a time served as Canada's ambassador to the US, and was political strategist for both the government of Brian Mulroney and of Stephen Harper.

Burney was born in Fort William, Ontario (now known as Thunder Bay) to George William Burney (1886–1951) of Westville, Nova Scotia, and Annie Mary MacKay (1906–1995), who was born in Durban, South Africa but grew up on the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides.

[citation needed] Upon graduation, Burney entered the federal public service and the Canadian diplomatic corps, subsequently serving in Japan and, as Ambassador, in Korea.

[citation needed] After leaving the post of Chief of Staff in 1989, Burney became Canada's Ambassador to the United States.

The boards of directors on which Burney has sat or now sits include CanWest Global Communications (which went bankrupt), Quebecor World Inc., Shell Canada and TransCanada Corp.

[5] On 14 May, he castigated the Trudeau government over its conduct of relations with China: "The litany of apologies and obsequiousness by Canada is one that only a lickspittle would salute.