Wednesday, March 29, 2006

There goes a deal for softwood

McClellan just blew good relations with Canada.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, this will be -- you're talking about Canada? I mean, the President had a -- first of all, had a good discussion with Prime Minister Martin [sic] yesterday. That was a call that Prime Minister Martin [sic] initiated, really to thank the President on behalf of the people of Canada for the efforts of our coalition forces, our American forces, part of the coalition, to rescue the hostages last week, including one Canadian.
Sorry George, I bet you didn't realize Prime Minister Harper was so touchy. Too bad for BC.

I suppose there's something important to say here about national spokepeople not knowing the name of the leader of the country right next door, but what I'm worried about is the inevitable whining that will come from my corner. I remember when Bush neglected to mention Canada as one of the US's great allies post-9/11, and the flying shitstorm that created. My reaction was more along the lines of - who cares?

Speaking as a Canadian who spends most of his time in a high dudgeon over something or other, there's nothing more aggravating than Canadians in high dudgeon over trivial slights. UNLESS it happens to work against the political parties that I disagree with. In which case, it's funny.

(Thanks, Michael!)

2 comments:

Declan said...

I did care about Bush's post-9/11 comments, but about this, not so much.

Anonymous said...

Yo JM, totally agree about Canadian whingeing over trivial slights. It does nothing for our nation's image except reinforce certain stereotpyes ("hey! look at us! We're here too! We're important - seriously!..." ugh). We come across as the short and balding single guy at a dinner party who tries to compensate for deep-seeded feelings of inadequacy by telling people how powerful he is at his industrial supplies company. We're overly-eager to validate our comparatively minute global influence and it reeks of desperation. The obligatory responses always hold a modicum of sincerity ("sigh... Alright, Canada, you're important to us as well"). BTW, the new Neko Case album is quite good (I recall you liking her music at some point).