They do look pretty natural together.
Posted on 10/18/2005 1:14:36 PM PDT by proud_yank
London, Ont. — Former U.S. president Bill Clinton drew a standing ovation from a Canadian audience last night after he strongly endorsed Prime Minister Paul Martin's tough public stand on softwood lumber and implicitly criticized Washington's refusal to abide by a NAFTA panel ruling on the issue.
"I don't think he's got an option," Mr. Clinton said of Mr. Martin's recent linkage of the lumber dispute with Canadian energy exports to the United States.
"If I were the Canadian prime minister, that's what I'd say."
The speech delivered to a sold-out crowd of nearly 4,000 at the John Labatt Centre in London, was vintage Clinton: free-ranging, extemporaneous, folksy and layered with supporting facts and figures.
During a 45-minute prepared talk and in 20 minutes of questions and answers, Mr. Clinton held forth on the North American free-trade agreement, multilateralism, globalization, global warming, the AIDS pandemic, tsunami and hurricane relief, his differences with President George W. Bush and his affection for Mr. Bush's father, the vagaries of life after power, and his wife's career in politics. The crowd rose to its feet as he finished his address.
The former president's most pointed comments, however, were reserved for the current softwood lumber dispute, which has brought Canada-U.S. economic relations -- relatively smooth for more than a decade despite disagreement over the invasion of Iraq -- to their lowest point since NAFTA was struck in 1992.
"You've lost a lot of jobs and a fair bit of money," Mr. Clinton said.
"If I were [Mr. Martin] I don't know that I'd be very pleased about it."
At the same time, Mr. Clinton echoed the line taken by senior U.S. officials in recent days, repeating that both sides should get back to the bargaining table.
In August, NAFTA's highest arbitration panel ruled in Canada's favour on softwood, saying that U.S. tariffs that artificially inflate the cost of Canadian lumber for U.S. consumers are illegal under American trade law. The NAFTA panel said that $5-billion in tariffs collected from Canadian softwood-lumber exporters should be refunded.
The United States points to a World Trade Organization ruling a week later that appeared to find in its favour, and says more negotiations are needed.
Mr. Martin and his senior ministers have strongly repudiated that line of argument, saying the NAFTA agreement is crystal clear, was signed by both parties in good faith and leaves no room for interpretation or further negotiation.
Mr. Clinton repeatedly called for a return to negotiations, saying the North American trade relationship is simply too important to do otherwise.
"If I were [Mr. Martin], I'd be very firm in public and try to work on it behind closed doors," he said.
Mr. Clinton made no secret of where his sympathies lie, however. He spoke at length about U.S. states' concerns over Canadian stumpage fees -- payments to provincial governments for cutting trees -- which U.S. lumber producers say are unfairly low.
However, he repeatedly suggested, without going into specifics, that he strongly believes in bilateral and multilateral agreements, and that countries should enter into and adhere to those agreements, even if they occasionally sustain rulings not in their favour.
"I believe in institutional co-operation, even if it means you disagree with the occasional decision now and then."
Mr. Clinton also strongly endorsed Canada's opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, saying the decision wouldn't have angered him had he been in the White House at the time because it was made for reasons of principle.
When Congress voted to give Mr. Bush permission to invade, Mr. Clinton said, it did so with the understanding that UN weapons inspectors would have time to complete their work.
"There was no evidence [Iraq] had anything to do with 9/11," he said, adding, however, that he now strongly supports the U.S.-led effort to establish democracy in Iraq.
The former president said he gets along with Mr. Bush "quite well, we just see the world in different ways."
He then ticked off a list of policy areas in which he categorically disagrees with his successor. These include Mr. Bush's abrogation of the international anti-ballistic missile treaty, his refusal to join in the Kyoto Protocol and his refusal to support an international criminal court.
"I don't agree with the unilateral position," he said. "I support international agreements."
Climate change, Mr. Clinton said, poses the greatest single threat to life on the planet as we know it. "If we don't do something, we are playing Russian roulette with the future of our great-grandchildren, and maybe our grandchildren."
As evidence, he cited the growing number of so-called extreme weather events around the world and gradual crumbling and melting of the polar ice caps.
The Prime Minister's office did not comment last night on Mr. Clinton's speech.
Former Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy told CTV last night that Mr. Clinton would be most valuable discussing the softwood issue in the United States, where it is getting little attention.
"He has to be able to provide some leadership in his own country on this issue," Mr. Axworthy said. Latest Comments in the Conversation
Rob Smith from King's Point, Canada writes: Rick La Rose #38 must be puffting on some of that stuff grown in Afghanistan.
Posted Oct. 18, 2005 at 2:23 PM EDT Link to Comment Wally Blouin from Elliot Lake Ontario, Canada writes:
This refusal by the US to honor NAFTA is typical of the way the US does business. You either do it their way or take a hike.
Posted Oct. 18, 2005 at 2:59 PM EDT Link to Comment Rick La Rose from Ottawa, Canada writes:
Rob Smith,
If you only knew what I have here as evidence. If you only knew what exactly goes on beyond partisan divide. The world is not Black and White, tis not good and evil. If you think in those terms then you miss finding the answers because more often then not the answers are in the shades of grey.
I can send you a copy of the document signed by Bush and released under the freedoms of information act that highlights George W. Bush giving an executive order that Osama Bin Laden is not to be arrested by either the CIA or the FBI. I can send you video taped testimony from big shots within the FBI and CIA confessing to abnormalities which occured on 9/11 (like the military training which emptied Washingtons air force response landing strips thus making it near impossible for any fighters to intercept the airliners which went of course and slammed into the twin towers, pentagon and in a field).
Then there's the media reports showing the plane which was said to have crashed in a field, after valiant passengers warded off so-called terrorists from crashing into the whitehouse like a good hollywood movie, landing safely. To me the whole thing was a sham and I continue to disbelieve anything coming out of the US media. I have friends in Iraq who send me pictures showing US military kicking and beating women to the ground, US soldiers shooting people in the back and even a video showing US soldiers making fun of a taxi driver and then for the hell of it rolling over his taxi with there tank as he's crying telling him it's his only source of income for his family.
Honestly.. do you really think this war is valiant? Do you honestly think the Americans are better then the Romans, the British or any other empire?
Give me an email adress and I will send you all this and more. You will be soo shocked at what you're seeing that you'll wonder why the media here doesn't report it.
Rick McCaffrey from Calgary, Canada writes: Dear Jack Ryan from Toronto (ex-Calgary) - Thanks for the lecture Jack, but next time you pop off you might want to get your facts straight. I never said natural resources were mine. I said they belong and are managed by the province they reside. Your second comment is bang on. I look forward to meeting my eastern brothers and sisters when they move out west. I have met labourers from Toronto this past summer as they biult my deck and did landscaping. Great guys. Guess what smart guy, there opinions have changed drastically since moving to Calgary towards a more accountable position, something obviously lacking in your makeup. I have met many others from the east extremely happy to away from the likes of you.The voting block called the GTA is influencing the country in an extremely negative way, namely propping up a crimminal party for there own benefit regardless of the consequences to the rest of the country. Mine is not a predgudice with the GTA as human beings (your over the top man), but a total disgust with the way the little people of the GTA are manipulated by the elitist crowd, that would be you Jacky boy. Have you sold your million dollar condo in downtown Calgary yet. I sure hope so.
Rick McCaffrey from Calgary, Canada writes: It would nice to see my comment to Jack Ryan posted with his so Canadians can decide who is anti-Canadian.
BWAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAHAAAHAAAHAAhahahahahahahahaaaa....
I think that does it. Wait, wait....Nope
HaaaaaaHaaaaaa hahahahahahahaaaa hee hee hee, haaa haa haha!!!!!!!!
Were the tickets free?
The most corrupt President in US history supports the most corrupt PM in Canadian histoy. Both are liberal, elitist liberals.
Maybe he will stay there hope/hope/hope
With Hillary!
Might as well attack your President from Canada as anywhere else.
Would Hillary join Bill and his girlfriend, Belinda Stronach, who screwed over the Tories and switched parties in exchange for a Cabinet seat earlier this year?
Ptuy on them all.
What a load of $hites. This guy is a real number. He comes up here and all the ladies go on orgasm alert! He tells the crowd exactly what paul martin our pathetic excuse for a Prime Minister what he wants to hear. Don't kid yourself, there is no one more smug and arrogant than a Canadian from a major urban center. And Billy boy shites on his country so he can score points for the wife come 08. Just goes to show you man Liberalism is a disease of the affluent, white upper class and their accomplices.
There is something pathological in Democratic circles than compels them to bash America while they stand on foreign soil.
Maybe Slick will drop Slickette and hook up with his long time love Belinda Stronach and take over Canada.
They deserve each other.... Slick and Canada, that is.
Keep your slick Willie. We have enough "slime ball politicos" in this country already. We need immigrants that will raise the national I.Q. not lower it. If you cannot shut Clinton up, keep him at home. Has he not done enough damage already? The Democratic party IS the party of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, you just wait for 08 and you get the misses in the White House!
Wrong, This ASSH__E will say what the Socialists want to hear. As long as they supply him with P___Y he'll be happy to diss his country. His wife was head of the SDS. a commie front group. so go figure.
Wrong, This ASSH__E will say what the Socialists want to hear. As long as they supply him with P___Y he'll be happy to diss his country. His wife was head of the SDS. a commie front group. so go figure.
cheers!
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