SUDDENLY, the obsession is mutual. After a long history of Canadians keeping a wary eye on our oblivious neighbours to the south, Americans have turned their attention to us. And it appears, they're not always enchanted with what they see.

For months now, instead of the traditional Mounties and maple syrup, the U.S. media has been filled with tales of SARS, coddled terrorists, same-sex weddings and decriminalized pot. Each passing day seems to provide fresh fodder for those Americans inclined to believe that a pariah has taken up residence next door. Last week, it was confirmation that a Washington state cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy(BSE), was imported from Alberta. Then came the continuing confusion over a U.S. program to fingerprint and photograph foreign visitors, along with a future demand for "biometric" passports containing computer chips with unsmiling, digitized photos. Ottawa claims only 3,000 citizens are affected by Washington's latest entry requirements, but proposed changes could pose a headache for tens of thousands of Canadian residents who hail from countries on America's must-have-a-visa list. If the U.S. Congress could confer "least-favoured nation" status, Canada might now be a prime candidate.

It's difficult to argue that we should feel unfairly singled out in what is becoming America's age of suspicion, but things clearly aren't going as smoothly as they used to. Paul Martin has vowed to make improved relations with the United States a priority of his tenure, creating a special cabinet committee that he will chair. And this week, he and George W. Bush were to have their first leader-to-leader meeting during a Western hemisphere summit in Monterrey, Mexico, where mad cow will be on the agenda, if not the menu. Reports from the White House suggest the Bush administration is expecting a warmer relationship with Canada after the often chilly Chrétien years. Ottawa is already dangling a peace offering -- a willingness to participate in the so-called Star Wars missile defence project. But with so much baggage piling up -- softwood lumber, Iraq, the Arar affair, to name just a few recent disputes -- it will take more than gestures, golf games and photo ops to make real progress.

Gordon Giffin, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, now a lawyer specializing in cross-border issues, says the relationship is at times strained, but not dysfunctional. "It's not like there is somehow evidence of a flaw in how we relate to each other," he said from his Atlanta office. As the North American economy becomes more and more integrated -- 87 per cent of Canada's trade, an estimated US$1.2 billion a day, is now with the U.S. -- there are simply more pitfalls to watch for. The biggest, perhaps, is Washington's changed priorities since the Sept. 11 attacks, a reality that many nations, including Canada, are struggling to adapt to. "Paul Cellucci [the current U.S. ambassador] said last March that security trumps trade," said Giffin. "And I think that's still the case."

Tom Axworthy, a former senior adviser to Pierre Trudeau, and long-time specialist on U.S.-Canada relations, argues that cross-border problems are now so common that Canadians should stop obsessing about them. "We kind of rent our garments and pull the hair out of our heads every time these disputes end up in the headlines," said Axworthy. "Well, people should take a Valium. This is just the way things work now."

The 19th century vision of diplomacy, where nations interacted through their ambassadors and ministries, is painfully outmoded in a wired, globalized world, said Axworthy. If Canadians are really concerned about American perceptions, then we have to take matters into our own hands, and forge ties on the issues we both care about, whether it's the environment, trade, fishing or tourism. "We're not the United States," said Axworthy. "We have a very different value system, and we have to work hard to get Americans to understand our positions and to find allies. Otherwise we're going to continue to be demonized by their right wing."

With elections looming in both countries, bilateral relations will soon take a back seat to domestic concerns, at least for the short term. For all their current worries, Canadians have a history of punishing leaders they deem too cozy with the U.S. And Americans, as always, have much bigger things to fret about.

jonathon.gatehouse@macleans.rogers.com

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