US/Canada Relations

[donvonbra]

L. IAN MACDONALD

Freelance

Monday, August 09, 2004

Martin preferred to meet Bush in the formal surroundings of the White House, instead of the casual setting of the Texas ranch.

Before becoming prime minister, Paul Martin made it clear that improving relations between Canada and the United States would be a top priority for his government.

How's he doing so far?

On his first day in office last Dec. 12, Martin revealed at a press conference he'd offered the ambassador's post in Washington to John Manley, his defeated leadership rival. Manley, astonished the offer was made public, eventually declined with thanks.

In Washington, our ambassador, Michael Kergin, was equally taken aback. His effectiveness as Canada's premier envoy was also completely undercut. The prime minister, in a very public and humiliating way, had offered his job to someone else.

Nearly eight months later, Kergin's successor has yet to be named, and he remains on the job, though his four-year posting is up and he would normally be replaced this fall. Now the thinking is that Martin may wait until after the U.S. election in November, in the hope that George W. Bush loses, so that his choice as ambassador can present his credentials to a new president, John Kerry.

In his first full week on the job, the Prime Minister's Office leaked to the Globe and Mail that Martin had declined an offer of an early meeting with Bush, opting to meet him instead on the margins of a hemispheric summit in Monterrey in January.

This came as quite a surprise to the White House, which doesn't like being shown up like that. It also came as quite a surprise to President Bush himself, who was quite happy to see the back of Jean Chretien, and eager to get down to business with Martin. As Bush told a close Canadian friend at the time: "I've made it very clear I'll meet him wherever and whenever he wants." It could have been at the White House, or it could have been a weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David, or at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex.

Martin's father, as external affairs minister with Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, was at the table for the signing of the auto pact at the LBJ Ranch in Texas in January 1965. A visit to this president's Texas ranch would have been a good way to get acquainted informally. It also would have been a nice touch, indicating a sense of continuity and history.

Ultimately, in a visit that took place nearly five months after he took office, Martin chose the formal setting of the White House and the Oval Office, accompanied by a large delegation that even included one of his assistants, an eye-raising breach of protocol that dictates that only principals are at the table.

The April 30 White House meeting was the last public event, rather than the first, on a two-day trip to Washington, downplaying the importance of the visit, and leaving the impression Martin wanted to keep his distance from Bush, an unpopular figure in Canada. Martin had his itinerary exactly backward. In the real West Wing, such things do not pass unnoticed. Afterward, asked if he would accept an invitation "to the ranch," Martin uneasily replied, "we'll see."

Martin then launched his campaign in the last week of May on an anti-American note, proclaiming, "we don't want to be Americans, we want to be Canadians." He accused his opponents of advocating, U.S.-style health care, among other U.S.-style bogeymen, though he did not shrink himself from stooping to U.S.-style attack ads, the most savage ever seen in Canada.

The constant denigration of the U.S. in the Liberal campaign left a bad taste, but the Americans are used to it, and were prepared to get down to business with Martin after the election.

But after the first meeting of his new cabinet last month, Martin announced the government would be bringing back a bill to decriminalize marijuana that died on the order paper of the last Parliament. Welcome to long line-ups at the border.

However, the real test of Martin's conduct and management of the Canada-U.S. relationship is where he nets out on the North American missile-defence shield, an issue on which, as American ambassador Paul Celluci has pointedly noted, "the clock is ticking."

Bush has made it clear he wants to deploy the first land-based missiles under the

NORAD umbrella before the end of the year. Despite announcing satellite and radar data-sharing under NORAD with the U.S. missile defence command, Defence Minister Bill Graham insisted last week that Canadian participation was not inevitable and that a final decision was still months away.

Months away means not until after the U.S. election, in the hope Kerry wins the presidency and stands down from missile defence, sparing Canada a decision. In effect, Canadian sovereignty is being handed over to Americans at the ballot box.

Missile deployment has always been an emotional and highly charged issue in Canada. A previous minority government fell in 1963 when the prime minister, John Diefenbaker, reneged on his promise to arm Bomarc missiles with nuclear weapons. Twenty years later, there was a great fuss over cruise-missile testing in Alberta, but Pierre Trudeau agreed to it, explained it, and accepted the consequences.

It's called leadership.

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[Big Blue Machine]

Come Paul Martin so happy to the Americans on his first meeting, but was anti-American during the campaign.