Four thoughts:

1.   I  disagree completely with the choice, even if he does have excellent credentials, based on his friendship that should take him out of the equation.

2. No evidence of excellent credentials to bring tech jobs to Canada are presented. 

3. The compensation is not unreasonable for a senior person, despite the range issue.  Anyone with the stuff to walk the walk and get results would except as much.  The housing and Hawaii piece are a red herring.  

4. The right question we should ask is can the man get results that mean teams of engineers in Canada, excellent Canadian engineers returning to build businesses at home and placement of  Canadian kids into Silicon Valley jobs on both sides of the border.

It is the answer to question four that should be the issue. 

Consular jobs should not be patronage plums for the likes of Pamela Wallen in NYC.  (or maybe this guy).  They should be serious sales jobs to support Canadian interests.