Mark McDowell (born October 8, 1962) is a Canadian diplomat and was the first resident Ambassador of Canada to the Union of the Republic of Myanmar.
[2] Ambassador McDowell is a frequent speaker and participant in e-diplomacy conferences, offering a practitioners perspective.
[7] He is known for starting Canada's social media presence in China with "canadaweibo" on the Chinese Sina Weibo platform.
Canadaweibo grew from zero to 400,000 followers within two years, becoming the second largest and most influential embassy site in China after the USA's.
In an interview with Mizzima News, he explains that social media was prioritized because the embassy was "starting late, and from scratch, with small budgets.
Since his term ended in September 2016, he started a new page to detail his post-diplomatic life `X-Ambassador to Myanmar, Mark McDowell'.
[13] Because of the long period of sanctions imposed by Canada on Myanmar, the relationship between the two countries was very limited and cold.
[14] Since taking up his job in June 2013, relations warmed considerably, with Canada naming Myanmar a priority country for both trade[15] and aid[16] and opening a visa office.
[17] Ambassador McDowell focused much of his attention on supporting grassroots democracy and human rights organizations working on issues such as freedom of speech and voter and civic education.
Canada has also started to cooperate on security related issues like border management and prevention of human trafficking.
[24] and in Thailand spoke at the First International Asian Gay and Lesbian Studies Conference in Bangkok in 2005, on the topic of marriage equality.