It's not necessarily a bad thing to be able to share consular services. Canada and Australia have had such a sharing agreement for over 25 years -- Australia handles Canadian interests in parts of Asia-Pacific region and in turn we handle theirs in some countries in Latin America and Africa. Similarly, a citizen of any EU country can use the services of any the other 26 if there's no mission of their home country.
But do we really want to have a protecting power relationship with Britain? Our former colonial power, who we broke from in 1931 all because a British-appointed GG couldn't tell the difference between representing "Buckingham Palace" and 10 Downing? This doesn't exactly bode well for an independent foreign policy. I wouldn't go for a dual diplomatic relationship with the US -- the brief one in the 90s in Nigeria was required only because all Commonwealth states boycotted that country in a show of derision. But surely there are other countries we can pair up with. Say, Ireland or New Zealand perhaps?
When you consider all those propaganda ads showing how we "defeated" the States in the War of 1812 -- in reality it was a draw since no border changes resulted -- you'd think John Baird and PMS would want to "Stand Up for Canada ™". This is anything but.
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