George W. Bush didn’t bother to call Stephen Harper goodbye when he left office. The interesting question regarding Barack Obama is not when he makes his obligatory first visit to Canada, but whether he will think to call afterward just to keep in touch. Germany’s foreign minister didn’t bother to call Ottawa to inquire about a stopover on his way to or from Washington to meet Hillary Clinton: he had been snubbed too often over the phone, by too many random interchangeable muzzled apathetic tenth-rate Canadian foreign ministers, to waste any more of his time. Any conversation with any foreign diplomat stationed in Ottawa turns, lately sooner rather than later, to the mind-boggling autism of the Harper regime. John Ibbitson’s column today is a must-read.
George W. Bush didn’t bother to call Stephen Harper goodbye when he left office. The interesting question regarding Barack Obama is not when he makes his obligatory first visit to Canada, but whether he will think to call afterward just to keep in touch. Germany’s foreign minister didn’t bother to call Ottawa to inquire about a stopover on his way to or from Washington to meet Hillary Clinton: he had been snubbed too often over the phone, by too many random interchangeable muzzled apathetic tenth-rate Canadian foreign ministers, to waste any more of his time. Any conversation with any foreign diplomat stationed in Ottawa turns, lately sooner rather than later, to the mind-boggling autism of the Harper regime. John Ibbitson’s column today is a must-read.