George & Steve
Today was the Big Day our Prime Minister's been waiting for since he wrote this letter to the Wall Street Journal, apologizing for Canada's taking a pass on Iraq. It cost him the 2004 election (oh, Stephen, didn't you see the Godfather? "Never take sides against the Family"?). Anyway, accumulated Liberal Party fuckups eventually made Harper the PM, and today he finally got some face time with Bush (minds out of the gutter, please).
I was rolling my eyes and cursing about 30 seconds into George W's opening statements to the press gallery. Right away, Bush did Harper a solid and made sure everyone knew how badly Harper bitch-slapped him during their first meeting: "He said what was on his mind in a very clear way. Basically, he got a little impatient." Oooh, put a boot in his arse, eh? This, of course, was meant for Canadians, most of whom hold George W in nothing but contempt. It's politically critical for Harper, who is already thought of by many Canadians as a Dubya-wannabe, not to appear to be sucking up to Bush (there go those minds again). That accomplished, they moved on to other matters: Afghanistan, softwood lumber, North Korea. That's where it got interesting.
Bush warned that some of the missiles being lobbed out of NK could possibly be headed for Canada, if not by design, then by an unexpected change in the course of a missile meant for the Pacific Northwest US. Harper agreed that this mustn't be allowed to happen and I'm certainly on side with that view, since such an event would have that baby knocking at my door. However, they were obviously laying the groundwork for further discussions about Canada participating in the missile defense shield, which I'm opposed to. Harper can't do anything on it right now, with a minority government. But it bodes ill for the future, if/when he gets a majority. We shall see.
Later, Dubya called Harper "Steve". Even Harper's wife calls him "Stephen". Hmm.
On the upside, it was almost 15 minutes before I heard the phrase "The Lessons Of September The Eleventh".
Thursday, July 06, 2006
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