Canadian Whine: Who Cares, Canada Needs Us More Than We Need Them

In Ottawa, Rice Seeks to Temper Bitterness About Bush Policies
Many in Poll See Americans As 'Rude, Greedy and Violent'

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 26, 2005; Page A10

TORONTO, Oct. 25 -- As relations between the U.S. and Canadian governments have increasingly soured, Americans here are being viewed with suspicion, derided in jokes and shunned as representatives of a sinister force.

One quick way for dinner speakers in Canada to win applause is to take verbal shots at the United States. President Bush is a frequent target of newspaper columnists. Pollster Michael Adams said Canadian views of the United States this month are the most unfavorable he has seen in 25 years. His findings coincide with the results of a survey of 17,000 Canadians in June by the Pew Research Center in which 53 percent viewed Americans as "rude, greedy and violent."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Ottawa Monday and Tuesday to try to soothe the rancor. She spoke warmly of the friendship between the North American neighbors. "This is a relationship that is deep and broad and good," she said in an appearance Tuesday with Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew.

But her arrival served to remind Canadians of their irritation with the United States. In April, Rice pointedly canceled a visit to Canada as a diplomatic rebuke for its decision not to participate in the Bush administration's missile defense system. The decision broke a long tradition of visits to Canada by incoming secretaries of state.

The Toronto Star newspaper noted Monday that Rice visited 39 countries, traveled 167,366 miles and spent 357 hours in the air "before making the 90-minute hop to Ottawa."

Her presence this week also gave Prime Minister Paul Martin and members of Parliament an opportunity to state their grievances against the U.S. government.

Top on their list is the U.S. refusal to accept rulings under the North American Free Trade Agreement that the United States has illegally collected nearly $4 billion in tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber imports. The Bush administration views the issue as an arcane trade dispute and Rice asked Tuesday that Canadians "keep this in perspective." But to Canadians, it has become a searing symbol of arrogance and hubris by the Bush administration.

Blaring newspaper headlines have described the U.S. government as a "bully" and "outlaw." The national tenor was captured in a blunt question to Rice on Tuesday by a reporter in Ottawa: "If you don't live up to a decision with your closest neighbor, how will other countries around the world trust the United States?"

In response, Rice urged Canadians "not to speak in apocalyptic language," and she insisted the U.S. commitment "has been as good as gold."

Martin, though, has been persistent on the issue. "Friends live up to their agreements," he scolded when asked about the U.S. position in a news conference Monday. In a telephone conversation with Bush on Oct. 14, Martin rejected the president's request to negotiate the tariff issue, saying Canada "would not negotiate a win," according to an account by Martin's office uncontested by the White House.

Hey Martin, friends don't act snarky, sneer at, don't snipe behind their back, make cheap jokes at their friends. It's a two way street. How can you expect me to respect you if you show us no respect. Perhaps, if you were more respectful of your "friends," you would get more respect?

Full Story: Condi Soothes Canadian Hurt

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