How others see us
The Toronto Star, Dec. 14, 2005. 01:00 AM
Like Archie Bunker's long-suffering wife Edith, Canada's politicians should learn to stifle themselves. That's the thought of the day from U.S. ambassador David Wilkins, who wants Paul Martin to stop criticizing Washington over Kyoto and lumber.
"It may be smart election-year politics to thump your chest and criticize your friend and your Number 1 trading partner constantly," Wilkins said yesterday in Ottawa. "But the last time I looked the United States was not on the ballot." Last summer Wilkins deplored our "emotional tirades." Now our "heated rhetoric." In reality, though, it is Washington that puts itself on our ballot when it imposes unfair duties that cost our softwood lumber exporters $5 billion. And while Canada is no Kyoto champion, the U.S. is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter.
The New York Times featured a lead editorial yesterday — America's shame in Montreal — on the United Nations climate change conference last week. The U.S. "deserves only censure" for threatening to "blow the whole conference to smithereens," the editorial said. Yet when Canadians voice similar views, we are branded as American-bashing hotheads. That's not true. As Martin puts it, "it's the job of the prime minister of Canada to defend the interests of Canada."
Yes, it is. Our tundra is melting, and our exporters are hurting. Like it or not, those are facts, not tirades. All Canadian politicians should be talking them up.
Posted on The Human Stain
Like Archie Bunker's long-suffering wife Edith, Canada's politicians should learn to stifle themselves. That's the thought of the day from U.S. ambassador David Wilkins, who wants Paul Martin to stop criticizing Washington over Kyoto and lumber.
"It may be smart election-year politics to thump your chest and criticize your friend and your Number 1 trading partner constantly," Wilkins said yesterday in Ottawa. "But the last time I looked the United States was not on the ballot." Last summer Wilkins deplored our "emotional tirades." Now our "heated rhetoric." In reality, though, it is Washington that puts itself on our ballot when it imposes unfair duties that cost our softwood lumber exporters $5 billion. And while Canada is no Kyoto champion, the U.S. is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter.
The New York Times featured a lead editorial yesterday — America's shame in Montreal — on the United Nations climate change conference last week. The U.S. "deserves only censure" for threatening to "blow the whole conference to smithereens," the editorial said. Yet when Canadians voice similar views, we are branded as American-bashing hotheads. That's not true. As Martin puts it, "it's the job of the prime minister of Canada to defend the interests of Canada."
Yes, it is. Our tundra is melting, and our exporters are hurting. Like it or not, those are facts, not tirades. All Canadian politicians should be talking them up.
Posted on The Human Stain
posted by James Roberts at
12/15/2005 10:09:00 PM
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