Posted on 03/02/2006 8:32:46 AM PST by GMMAC
McKenna believes anti-U.S. talk hurt Liberals
Toronto Globe and Mail
Thursday, March 2, 2006
by ALAN FREEMAN
WASHINGTON -- On his last day in the job, Canadian Ambassador Frank McKenna took his former Liberal bosses in Ottawa to task yesterday for their "gratuitously offensive" anti-U.S. rhetoric during the recent federal election campaign.
Mr. McKenna, who resigned the day after the Jan. 23 election and is being replaced by former Conservative finance minister Michael Wilson, said Canadians want their government to be assertive of Canadian interests without being anti-American.
"[Voters] do want [us] to stand up for Canada, but they recognize Americans as friends, neighbours, allies, cousins, and I don't think they buy into the idea of being gratuitously offensive," Mr. McKenna told reporters at the Canadian Embassy.
"And I would say that playing that card during the election was not helpful at all to their electoral prospects. This relationship represents 40 per cent of our [gross domestic product] and 86 per cent of our exports. It's our best customer by a long shot. . . . We need to be respectful of it."
Mr. McKenna said officials in Washington are prepared to deal with Canadians who assert their national interests but "when we're judgmental and almost sanctimonious, I find that they take offence -- and quite rightfully so."
Mr. McKenna said Canada was close to reaching a settlement with the United States on the contentious softwood lumber dispute last fall, but the Canadian election call made a deal politically impossible.
"Our runway ended up being eaten by the election," Mr. McKenna said. "We were that close. . . . It became obvious that doing this during an election would be like trying to change an engine on a moving plane. It was impossible."
Mr. McKenna said he had "literally been muzzled for the last couple of months" of his posting because of the election campaign. With the muzzle removed, he lit into former prime minister Paul Martin's entourage for its characterization of a meeting he had in December with the White House's top environment official.
An account of the meeting leaked to the news media said the White House had called in Mr. McKenna and chewed him out over a speech Mr. Martin had made criticizing U.S. policy on climate change.
Mr. McKenna acknowledged that the White House was upset by Mr. Martin's comments, but he said he had actually requested the meeting to discuss the climate-change talks that were then deadlocked in Montreal. He said the Prime Minister's Office took the memo that had been written about the encounter, "gave it to the press and torqued it as us having been called in and spanked, which was not the right characterization."
He said the White House had been "disconcerted" by this incident.
Mr. McKenna also chastised Mr. Martin's officials for making public the details of an earlier phone conversation between Mr. Martin and Mr. Bush which he said had broken the confidentiality needed to create trust between world leaders.
As for the aborted softwood deal, Mr. McKenna said there was "a lot of momentum" for an agreement but numerous details to be worked out. He said any deal would be complex because of differing interests among the provinces and manufacturers. He said he did not hold out hopes for a quick deal resolution.
"[Former French Premier Georges] Clemenceau said that war is too important to be left to generals, and I would say that softwood lumber is too important to be left to special interests," Mr. McKenna said. "It is an issue that really is poisonous to the larger relationship between the two countries. Governments need to listen to their constituents on this . . . but ultimately national governments need to find a settlement."
Trade Minister David Emerson, who was industry minister under the Liberals, said this week that "a rough framework" for a deal had been worked out in November but had been rejected in advance by British Columbia, Canada's largest lumber producer.
"I don't think there was a deal, and the framework that had been arrived at was not acceptable to Canada," he said.
Mr. McKenna had fond words for his U.S. counterpart in Ottawa, calling Ambassador David Wilkins "a very close friend" who is doing a great job in representing Washington. He said that he understood Mr. Wilkins's decision in December to criticize Mr. Martin's Washington-bashing electioneering.
"I thought it was appropriate to speak on behalf of his country and if you like, lay a bit of a marker down, that the United States is not in this election campaign," Mr. McKenna said, adding that he did not think Mr. Wilkins understood how his remarks would actually fuel the fire.
Mr. McKenna, who was seen as a front-runner to replace Mr. Martin as Liberal leader, said he decided not to run for the job because he was unwilling to make a 24-hour-a-day commitment to politics over the next eight to 10 years as the party rebuilds itself.
That long time horizon might also be why other strong contenders have bowed out of the race. "If somebody were to walk in and say you can be prime minister of Canada for the next four years . . . there would be a lot of interest in that job."
Mr. McKenna said some Conservatives wanted him to stay on as ambassador but he felt he could not do so in good conscience.
"No man can have two masters. And my master was the government of the day and the prime minister of the day."
Asked what he planned to do next, the former New Brunswick premier, who is 58, laughed and said his brothers don't want him back on the farm, and his son isn't interested in having him rejoin the family-owned kitchen-cabinet firm, so he might see what the opportunities are as a fisherman.
Becoming more serious, he said he had received offers to serve on corporate boards, in investment banking and other ventures. But he said he would take time to "recharge the batteries" before making a final decision.
PING!
Is he just figuring out that hate isn't an attractive trait?
Their anti-Americanism solidified their base and helped them sweep Toronto and keep strength in Montreal and Vancouver. However, it cost them dearly elsewhere.
The Maritimes traditionally had a strong economic tie to the New England States.This was severed by the Liberals beginning in 1970, and it was the death nell to the Maritime economy. The Libs insisted on West to East economic trading which relegated workers to seasonal employment, mere hewers of wood and drawers of water. They went on the dole.
Traditional weekend Air Canada flight routes from Halifax, Fredericton, to Boston were even suspended, and retained by Air Canada so no other carrier would take up the lucrative weekend travel to Boston for hockey and baseball games, as well as shopping.
Later , rail transportation of bulk goods was economically impossible because the Libs cut federal subsidy for rail transport. Frank and his liberal cohorts know all of this of course, and to have him blame the Liberal leadership for traducing the USA relationship of his country and home province, of which he was Premier for many years, is a large case of the pot calling the kettle black. As the former Premier of New Brunswick he contributed to it instead of publically resisting it.
Go home Frank, and retire.Even the two sides of your face are now worn out.
While a somewhat over simplified explanation in its ignoring of a lot of other urban pandering, you may want to see if you can interest "Trader Paul Martin" in a similar trade-off involving some magic beans.
In the words of the great Nelson Mundt, "Ha ha!"
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