Time to tackle fragile ties

November 3, 2004

3 November 2004

Time to tackle fragile ties

The following article is excerpted from the 3 November 2004 edition of the “Toronto Star”.

Paul Martin and his inner circle will be told tomorrow that with the U.S. presidential election now past, it's time for the federal government to kick-start a cross-border relationship going nowhere fast.

Michael Kergin, Canada's ambassador to the United States, is flying in from Washington specifically to map the considerable challenges ahead for the Prime Minister, his ministers and senior mandarins. Cabinet will be told that it must forcefully engage the U.S. on issues largely left dormant while the two countries struggled through close, divisive and often nasty campaigns.

While the language will be scrupulously diplomatic, the message will be direct. After a good start when Martin met George W. Bush in Monterrey, Mexico, last winter, the relationship has cooled and is now merely correct.

Proof of just how cool and correct is found in Canada's frustrating failure to make meaningful progress on trade disputes costing jobs and money. The border remains mostly closed to beef and, despite favourable tribunal rulings, flagrant U.S. protectionism has drained the softwood industry by some $4 billion in penalties that may never be refunded.

Add lower-profile trade irritants, this country's increasing resistance to joining the controversial ballistic missile defence plan as well as continuing differences over Iraq and Martin's challenge becomes daunting. Making good on his promise to bring new sophistication to a critical relationship will require the determination to advance issues souring an otherwise happy trade partnership as well as the subtly to get close, but not too close, to the U.S. president.

That begins by accepting that the relationship needs work and that it can best be done by a new ambassador with the political connections and clout official Washington respects.

Martin is expected to make that appointment once the election smoke clears and the names now in the mix are all former politicians including David Pratt, the Liberal defence minister defeated in the June election, and former Ontario premier David Peterson.

But it won't be nearly enough to simply replace a diplomat with a politician. The beef and lumber controversies made it painfully clear that success in the United States means going beyond the White House and deep into power's many layers.

Instead of relying on the Prime Minister to convince the president to sway a recalcitrant Congress, Ottawa now knows it must broaden its contacts. That strategy recognizes that while access to the president remains important, this country can best make its case politician to politician, producer to consumer and person to person.

Canada is opening additional consulates and during his April pre-election visit to Washington, Martin announced a new secretariat charged with building connections between parliamentarians, provincial leaders and their American peers. While the strategy is sound and the intentions good, they need the encouragement that in this political system only comes from the top….

Canada's economic priority is to move beyond piecemeal protectionism to trade that is freer and less subject to political pressure. To get from here to there, Martin must deliver his promise of more sophistication by demonstrating that this country can be a trusted ally while fiercely defending its interests.

As Kergin is certain to counsel, that means injecting new energy into a relationship that is dangerously moribund. It means Martin must rise above the worst instincts of some in his party to make the right decisions. He hasn't made that effort since taking office. But the fact cabinet will discuss U.S relations so soon after the election is a reassuring sign that the Prime Minister at least knows he has an urgent problem.


Topic(s): 
Canadian Economy & Politics
Information Source: 
Canadian News Channel
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