Chretien am-Bushed in Kananaskis

Ottawa Sun ^ | June 27, 2002 | Greg Weston

[Clive]

CALGARY -- The protest parade snakes through Calgary's business district, pausing in main intersections to disrupt the morning rush-hour traffic. Not too long. Just for a minute. A minor inconvenience for motorists.

As the march passes, a young woman with five nose rings and a sign that reads "G8 Sucks!" apologizes for accidentally bumping into one of the dozens of bicycle police lining the demonstration route, using their two-wheelers as a makeshift barricade.

Welcome to anarchy, Calgary-style, a mass demonstration of polite protesters and bicycle cops that so far has been about as menacing as the Santa Claus parade.

This is all good.

The flipside of so much Canadian civility, however, is that in the absence of the usual tear-gas festival, the media horde has been forced to focus on the issues of the summit, and on the leaders themselves.

This has not been a positive turn of events for Jean Chretien.

PLANNED PHOTO-OPS

If all had gone according to plan, Canadians would have seen the summit through a series of carefully staged photo-ops, all portraying our smiling prime minister hosting the other smiling leaders at a two-day love-in at a postcard resort in the Rockies.

At the end of it all, the script called for Chretien to emerge victorious on the world stage, the great leader who had convinced the other seven mightiest western nations to support what has become his hallmark "action plan" to save Africa.

But George Bush had a different idea.

Monday this week, the day before the U.S. president arrived in Calgary, Bush tossed a small nuclear bomb into the G8 summit agenda by announcing his latest Middle East peace plan.

Without any apparent warning to Canadian officials, Bush outlined a series of innovative peace proposals he thought might be fun to discuss at the G8 retreat.

These included some rather controversial ideas such as getting rid of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a fundamental requirement.

Needless to say, all this caused much heartburn among Canadian officials.

First, it was obvious that Bush had directly or indirectly just hijacked the G8 agenda - if not the discussions, then certainly the media coverage of the event.

Second, the complexities and sensitivities of the Arab-Israeli conflict have never been Chretien's strong suit.

Who among his officials (not to mention ordinary blushing Canadians) could ever forget the PM's colorful trip to the Middle East two years ago, a junket of blunders that became known as his Magical Mystery Tour?

There was the day Chretien advised Arafat that issuing a unilateral declaration of independence for a Palestinian state might be a good bargaining chip. That was a big hit with both the Israelis and Quebecers.

Our favorite was his declaration that Israel had good reason to want to hang on to disputed territories, including the Sea of Galilee, since "it's the only lake they got." That one certainly got the Arabs' attention.

SIDE BY SIDE

And so it must have been with great holding of many breaths among Canadian officials that Chretien sat down beside Bush on Wednesday morning for their first joint speaking encounter with the media.

Bush began by reiterating his stand that Arafat should be replaced, regardless of the outcome of planned Palestinian elections later this year.

Chretien's foreign affairs minister, Bill Graham, had already stated Canada's opposition to Bush's call to oust Arafat, saying that "upon more mature reflection," he was sure all of the G8 countries would support Palestinian elections "and live with the leadership it produces."

With the U.S. president at his side and not more than 2,000 members of the world's media watching, Prime Minister Chretien spoke for all Canadians on this critical issue.

"And for me, I think it is important that the statement to the effect that we need in this part of the world an Israel that is secure and well-protected, and eventually a state for Israel (sic) ... we have to secure two countries there that can live in peace.

"You know, the president talk about he thought it would be better to replace Mr. Arafat - I don't have a specific point of view on that."

Stay tuned.

[Clive]

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[Notforprophet]

As a Canadian citizen I have to hang my head in shame at Prime Idiot Chretien. Thankfully, I have been a permanent resident of the USA for the last 18 years, and not forced to endure my homeland's slow spiral into Socialism.