The Chinese government has reportedly accepted the nomination of Barton, who also chaired the federal government’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth. He was McKinsey’s global managing director from 2009 to 2018 and is currently the chancellor of the University of Waterloo. Barton is the permanent replacement for John McCallum. (CBC News)

Talking point: Barton has experience in China, where McKinsey has advised many of the country’s largest state-owned enterprises—he spent five years in Shanghai as McKinsey’s Asia chairman before taking the firm’s top job. The new ambassador has also advocated for closer ties between the two countries, saying in August 2016 that Canada needs a trade deal with China, and suggesting that the government do more to encourage Chinese firms to invest in Canada. In a February 2017 report, the council identified China as one of three Asian markets—along with Japan and India—that the government should prioritize. But Barton’s task in Beijing will be to repair a bilateral relationship that has worsened significantly since those recommendations, following the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver and detention of two Canadians in China in December 2018. McCallum was removed in January for public comments on Meng’s legal case. The Canadian government reportedly kept the choice of Barton a secret in case Beijing rejected the appointment. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland raised the choice at a meeting last month with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Bangkok. It was their first meeting this year.