Canadians visiting the White House in Washington need to remember to never piss on the president’s rug and carry a plastic bag in your pocket for your errors in protocol on the White House lawn. While we most often criticize the Americans for their brashness in business and international relations, it is really Canadians who need the most help in getting things right. And we seem to forget our manners most frequently with our wayward American friends and neighbours.
It was never just President Richard Nixon that complained about Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau Senior could annoy friends and foes alike in his travels. President Lyndon Johnson had every reason to take Prime Minister Lester Pearson to the White House woodshed over his public speech in the United States about Vietnam. Despite the many contributions Canada made behind the scenes to the Vietnam War effort, Pearson’s public criticism of Johnson was simply bad manners.
And speaking of bad manners, Prime Minister Stephen Harper lowered the temperature of relations with the Obama administration considerably with his complaints to American business audiences about the delays in approving the Keystone XL pipeline. You could tell that President Obama enjoyed putting the cap on Keystone after Harper was defeated by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.
But we should not assume that everything is sweetness and light between Canada and the U.S.A. with the change of regime. Justin must have been taking a crash course in international relations since last October but he has a long way to go. With Obama in a lame-duck position with his last year in the White House, Trudeau would be best to settle for short-term objectives.
While both the American and Canadian news media will gush over the entire event in Washington as though it is the two leaders’ first date, it is not all that important. It will be a one-day of amnesty between the American news media and the administration and President Obama will feel grateful for that. For Justin and Sophie, it will be an event of confusing protocols, inane conversation, with inedible food on outrageously expensive dishes and with cutlery that the White House staff count carefully before and afterwards.
If Obama was really friendly with the two Canadians, he and the wife would take them out for some decent food afterwards. There really are some darn good restaurants in the Washington D.C. area.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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