Bush In Canada: A Lingering Impression

"We just had a poll in our country when people decided that the foreign policy of the Bush administration ought to stay in place for four more years. ...it's a foreign policy that also understands that we've got an obligation to defend our security." Though everybody in the world except for his half of divided America believes that his administration is conducting an illegal and globally destabilizing war in Iraq, "I made some decisions, obviously, that some in Canada didn't agree with, like, for example, removing Saddam Hussein and enforcing the demands of the United Nations Security Council." Though Canadians in particular have been very cool to Mr. Bush's unilateralism and suspicious of his motives in Iraq, "I fully understand there are some in my country - probably in your country and around the world - that do not believe that Iraq has the capacity for self-government, that they're willing to sign those people up for tyranny. That's not what I think." ``It is cultural condescension to claim that some peoples or some cultures or some religions are destined to despotism and unsuited for self-government,'' he said. ``Today in the Middle East, the doubters and pessimists are being proven wrong.'' Mr. Bush oozed a jittery confidence. He knew exactly what he wanted to say and even how to say it with a homely dyslexia. He made no overt statements about policy direction, but you could feel the menace of the cards that he, in typical Bush fashion, kept hidden close to his vest. Of course, Mr. Bush came to Canada for his reasons. Canadian pundits pointed out that his early visit surprised the Prime Minister's Office. Canadians had been expecting the visit to be a little mending of fences but understandably mostly for American domestic consumption. There are minor but irritating trade disputes on lumber and beef that some Canadian leaders hoped Mr. Bush could be persuaded to end. But mending fences with a political lightweight such as Canada was not really on the president's agenda. The appeasers - the business class and fellow travellers who still think that Canada made a mistake in not being on side with the US on Iraq and who decry any protest that might injure trade with the States, no matter that it was an illegal, imperial war - must also have had a hard time listening to this cocky but obviously double-speaking president who left an impression that he didn't give a hoot about Canada's trade troubles with the US, or NAFTA or the WTO for that matter. Instead, probably breaking agreed-upon planning for the visit, Mr. Bush made surprise comments about Canada's participation in his planned missile defense shield. Some international observers stated that the Bush visit was believed part of a new wider campaign to get western nations on side for participation in this shield and in doing so for weaponization in space - a big no-go in Canada. The security set a Canadian precedent. Demonstrators were mostly kept far away in obligatory Bush fashion. Mr. Bush did not address parliament for fear of being heckled which could have made harmful sound bites on US news. The group Lawyers Against the War (LAW) endeavored to get Mr. Bush arrested for being responsible for US military use of torture in Iraq, but police and court officials weren't interested. Mr and Mrs. Bush left the country unscathed. Polling showed that the president's visit hardly affected Canadian opinion of Bush and the US, and any new American appreciation of Canada - "Bush Gets Chilly Reception in Ottawa" was a typical US media headline - is even more unlikely. Did Bush look presidential back home? Probably, but who cares. But observers seeking insight into what the administration of the world's foremost power is going to do in their second four-year term must have left with a lingering impression of a slimy rat, cocky and bold, intent upon maximizing his ratty existence - with, in all probability, much more negative effects for Canadians and the rest of the world.