Here is a snippet from Scott McClellan, the US press secretary when responding to a question about the Cancun summit this week.
"The president had a good discussion with prime minister Martin yesterday. That was the call that prime minister Martin had initiated really to thank the president on behalf of the people of Canada for the efforts of our coalition forces."
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This will be the president's first meeting with Prime Minister Harper since he took office. He had met with him briefly previously when he was the Opposition leader."
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"The president looks forward to visiting with prime minister Martin and strengthening our relations."
The press secretary got our prime ministers name confused a few times in this speech. I expect these kinds of things from Dubya, but not from the press secretary. Are Bushisms out and McClellanisms on the rise, only time will tell.
2 comments:
Unfortunately, the American "couldn't care less" attitude isn't limited to the PM's name. It extends to bigger fish like softwood lumber, said to be the threat to the entire Canada-US free trade arrangement. But despite multiple trade tribunal rulings clearly in Canada's favour and repeated diplomatic efforts by Paul Martin and now Harper, the American administration continues to turn a blind eye to the whole issue.
Maybe things would have been different if Canada had supported the US-led war on Iraq. But it's better this way.
Ali, totally agree on this software lumber issue. This softwood lumber dispute is not going to be resolved any time soon, since our government wants to improve relations with the American administration and will have less of a negotiating edge. Although, negotiation should not be required because NAFTA has already ruled on the side of the Canadians!
I wonder if the lack of respect is because of our "bland" prime ministers. Harper and Martin never had much of a personality, compared to Bush and Clinton; you can say what you want about them, but atleast their non-rehearsed speeches do not bore. I wonder if would be taken more seriously if he had a more charismatic leader.
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