Bush bullies Canadian politicians

By GERRY WARNER
Staff Writer
Cranbrook Daily Townsman
Feb. 25, 2005
So George Bush is up to his old tricks again. Stories surfaced in the
press this week revealing that on his trip to Canada late last year
he attempted to bully both Prime Minister Paul Martin and Opposition
leader Stephen Harper.
The issue was the U.S. military's goofy "Star Wars" missile defence
system, a system that has yet to be successfully tested and is
costing American taxpayers gazillions.
And as this is being written, the world's self-appointed police chief
(or should that be emperor?) is in Moscow telling soviet President
Vladimir Putin how "disappointed" he is in Russian democracy. Imagine
that, an American president lecturing the former head of the KGB on
democracy. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when that took
place.
But I guess that's what you do when you have God whispering in your
ear all the time: "George, explain to 'Old Europe,' the error of
their ways. George, tell those blood-thirsty Iranians why they can't
have nuclear power like Americans do. George, enlighten those commie
pinkos about the virtues of democracy and George tell those wimpy
Canucks to shape up or we'll make them the 51'st state."
Not as far-fetched as it sounds, according to reports that have
leaked out about Bush's march into Ottawa last November. Apparently
when he was cloistered in a private meeting with Martin, Bush started
to ask pointed questions about why Canada hadn't yet come on board
with the missile defence system which could potentially involve
Canadian air space.
What Martin said is not known, but it probably didn't please the
president because Martin is now poised to announce formally that
Canada is not joining Star Wars. This is not a big surprise because
if Martin had signed on with the American program up to half his own
caucus would have bolted including the entire Liberal women's caucus.
And that could have meant bye, bye for the minority Liberal
government, which come to think of it, might well have pleased Bush
considering what Carolyn Parish has said about him.
But Bush's bullying of Harper is more puzzling, considering that the
Conservative leader is a bit of an ideological soulmate of the neocon
president and one of the few Canadian politicians that expressed open
support for the war against Iraq when the Americans first stormed in.
Harper didn't deny being pressured by Bush and an anonymous American
official said Bush chided Harper by demanding that he not play
"partisan politics" on the missile defence issue. Harper, somewhat
lamely, tried to defend the American president by saying he thought
Bush was "misinformed" about the Conservative position.
Come to think of it, wouldn't that apply to most of Bush's views of the world?
Be that as it may, Bush showed a lot of gall trying to push our
political leaders around on what was supposed to be a fence-mending
visit. Kind of hypocritical too when you consider he turned down an
invitation to speak to Parliament, which is the normal courtesy
extended to a visiting president.
Apparently the gun-toting and missile brandishing president refused
the offer to address Parliament out of fear of being heckled. What's
the old saying about bullies? Cowards at heart.
And it's not as if there aren't some serious problems in the
Canadian-American relationship that some enlightened presidential
leadership could help. Without a doubt, the greatest irritant between
our two countries is the softwood lumber dispute, which has been
dragging on for almost five years despite numerous decisions in
Canada's favour by NAFTA an d the WTO. Not only has the American
lumber lobby not tried to settle the dispute, but they've tried to
undermine the whole negotiating process and they've even started to
distribute some of the $3 billion in duties they've seized to their
own members.
They also closed their borders to Canadian beef exports for more than
a year and they've even stuck their nose into our own backyard right
here in the East Kootenay, questioning whether mineral exploration
can take place in the upper Flathead Valley south of Fernie.
You'd think Bush would have been waving a white flag on his Canadian
visit. Instead he offered us missiles.
But in the bigger picture of American imperial might these days, I
doubt if Canada even makes it on their radar screen. Uncle Sam has
got bigger fish to fry, like democratizing the Middle East, settling
the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and figuring out what they're going
to do when China surpasses them as the world's greatest economic
superpower.
And no amount of missiles is going to help them with that.
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