Gitane De Silva named U.S. representative by Alberta government

Gitane De Silva, a senior Canadian diplomat, has been named Alberta's top representative in Washington by the provincial government.

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"[De Silva]'s deep knowledge of our province and her many years of experience working in the United States as a professional diplomat will serve Alberta well," Premier Rachel Notley said in a statement Friday.

De Silva's resume includes time as the consul general of Canada in Chicago, head of environment and fisheries with the Canadian Embassy in Washington and most recently the deputy minister of international and intergovernmental relations for Alberta.

De Silva replaces Rob Merrifield, appointed by the previous Progressive Conservative government.

The NDP government ended Merrifield's contract last monththree years earlysaying at the time he was unqualified to hold the post.