That Get-Together With Rice Still Resonates

"I'm delighted to be here," MacKay said when it came his turn to speak. And, referring to Rice, went on: "I've always been a fan of yours and much of our discussion today confirmed what I already knew about you from having followed your career, so we're very grateful and I personally extend my thanks to you for your generous and very kind invitation to be with you." MacKay's curiously warm – some would say flirtatious – association with the hard-edged U.S. secretary has raised eyebrows ever since. But the initial bowing and scraping in front of Rice is still remembered in Ottawa as a sign of things to come. "When you are the minister of foreign affairs and you are on the international stage, you are not just any minister," says Liberal foreign affairs critic Ujjal Dosanjh, recalling MacKay's first visit as foreign minister to the U.S. capital. "You ought not act like a poodle of the United States of America or of the secretary of state." Since then, the 41-year-old MP and former Progressive Conservative party leader has presided over what some see as the most uninspired, disappointing period in Canadian foreign policy in many years. http://www.thestar.com/News/article/215612 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on May 24, 2007]

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