This year could be make-or-break for Canada-U.S. relations

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/this-year-will-be-make-or-break-for-canada-us-relations/article17020289/

This year could be make-or-break for Canada-U.S. relations
John Ibbitson
Special to The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Feb. 21 2014, 9:24 AM EST
Last updated Friday, Feb. 21 2014, 9:30 AM EST

For Canada and the United States, this is the watershed year.

On the surface, this week’s Three Amigos summit produced nothing but boilerplate. Below the surface, relations are tense. Every major file is on the cusp of decision. If those decisions go Canada’s way, then Barack Obama and Stephen Harper will be able to take credit for the most productive relationship between a president and a prime minister since the days of Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney.

If things go badly, relations will freeze so deeply that it will take a new president and/or a new prime minister to thaw them.

Obviously, Keystone XL is key. In the years leading up to this year’s presidential decision on whether to permit the pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf, the Americans expected Canada to be much more accommodating. They wanted to see made-in-Canada initiatives to reduce carbon emissions from the oil sands and elsewhere, which would have provided the President with cover for approving the pipeline despite intense opposition from environmentalists.

[applegrove]

1. Some high level Democrats involved in Obama's reelection showed up at the Liberal

convention in Montreal this weekend. Doesn't mean much. The GOP works with Stephen Harper all the time.