Canada skates carefully down the middle.

[SoCalDem]

not a new article, but a very interesting one, just the same :)

Dec. 14, 2004. 01:00 AM


http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1102978208504&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795

U.S. helps push us to margins


THOMAS WALKOM

Canada skates carefully down the middle.

snip...

We cling to the security blanket of multilateral co-operation even as we allow ourselves to be drawn, bit by bit, into U.S. President George W. Bush's doctrine of American exceptionalism.

snip....

Straddling the Atlantic has been both our habit and our virtue. Now we may find that feat trickier. Europe and the U.S. are growing ever farther apart. Increasing friction between the two is eliminating Canada's manoeuvring room. We've long been known as America's little pal. We now face the embarrassing prospect of being identified as its stooge.Certainly, Bush's presidency has accelerated this development. His Manichean world view ("either you are with us or for the terrorists") has irritated many U.S. allies.

Even those European governments that cleave to Bush do so in the face of considerable domestic opposition. Britain, in particular, is searching its soul. Many Britons argue that their so-called special relationship with the U.S., one that began with the anti-Hitler alliance of World War II, has finally run its course.

snip....

In the world of finance, the common European currency, the Euro, is now powerful enough to challenge the hegemony of the U.S. dollar. Canada's position in all of this is unenviable. Like the Western Europeans, we too are finding our political values at odds with those of the Americans. Yet, circumstance and our own cupidity have drawn us increasingly into the U.S. economic orbit. If the polls are right, most Canadian would like to tell Bush to take a flying leap. But we fear that if we displease the Americans overmuch, they will frisk our truckers at the border and stymie exports.

snip....

In a sense, it's the same, old pattern. The key difference is that now our isolation from the world outside North America is both more accentuated and more evident.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Walkom writes every Tuesday. [e-mail].

Additional articles by Thomas Walkom