U.S. wants confident Canada as closer ally
JOHN IBBITSON
OTTAWA— From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Sep. 02, 2011 8:31PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Sep. 02, 2011 8:47PM EDT
Source - Globe and mail
A chastened United States is looking to Canada to help it carry the weight of the world.
The question for the people of this increasingly confident and internationally engaged nation is how much of that weight we should bear, and what it means for Canada-U.S. relations.
The debate will dominate public discourse in Canada over the coming months as the two countries unveil plans for closer economic and security ties.
U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson acknowledges that, after the Sept. 11 attacks, his country made the terrible mistake of trying to shape its war on terrorism unilaterally.
“The idea that the United States can go it alone in the world … it just doesn’t work,” he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
Mr. Jacobson is a close political ally of President Barack Obama, so it’s not surprising that he lays much of the blame at the feet of George W. Bush. But that’s all right; most Canadians feel the same way.
The United States, a country that considers hope one of its chief exports “started exporting fear,” he said. Canada took some of the brunt of that through increased border security, passport requirements – Mr. Jacobson himself has twice been stopped at the border because someone with the same name as his was on the do-not-fly list – and stinging rebukes from the Bush administration when former prime minister Jean Chrétien refused to have anything to do with the invasion of Iraq.
While the United States floundered in its Middle Eastern quagmire, alienated almost every friend it had and then sent its economy plunging into the abyss, Liberal and Conservative governments in this country balanced the budget, rebuilt the military, fought in Afghanistan and, when recession came, discovered the blessings of sound and conservative banking rules.
As a result, Mr. Jacobson observes, Canadians feel “more confidence in the Canadian economy, in the ability to create jobs, in the banking system, all those things,” while in the United States “we’re having our troubles, both politically and economically.”
But the Obama administration has repaired at least some of the damage to his country’s reputation. Witness the close co-operation of U.S., Canadian and other NATO nations in supporting the rebels who overthrew the Gadhafi regime in Libya.
Canadians and Americans must now decide whether to bind themselves more closely in continental security and cross-border trade when the Beyond the Border action plan is released later this month.
Mr. Jacobson is hoping that both countries will embrace most or all of its recommendations because it is in their mutual interest and because, “fundamentally, I believe the Canadian people like the American people.”
On Friday, Mr. Jacobson unveiled an exhibit of photographs taken on Sept. 11 of cards, candles, flowers and such that Canadians left at the U.S. embassy after the attacks. It reminds us of the remarkable solidarity between Canadians and Americans in those days, when Mr. Chrétien promised another U.S. ambassador, Paul Cellucci, before a throng on Parliament Hill: “We will be with the United States every step of the way: as friends, as neighbours, as family.”
Mr. Jacobson’s greatest hope is that this still holds true.
JOHN IBBITSON
OTTAWA— From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Sep. 02, 2011 8:31PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Sep. 02, 2011 8:47PM EDT
Source - Globe and mail
A chastened United States is looking to Canada to help it carry the weight of the world.The question for the people of this increasingly confident and internationally engaged nation is how much of that weight we should bear, and what it means for Canada-U.S. relations.
The debate will dominate public discourse in Canada over the coming months as the two countries unveil plans for closer economic and security ties.
U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson acknowledges that, after the Sept. 11 attacks, his country made the terrible mistake of trying to shape its war on terrorism unilaterally.
“The idea that the United States can go it alone in the world … it just doesn’t work,” he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
Mr. Jacobson is a close political ally of President Barack Obama, so it’s not surprising that he lays much of the blame at the feet of George W. Bush. But that’s all right; most Canadians feel the same way.
The United States, a country that considers hope one of its chief exports “started exporting fear,” he said. Canada took some of the brunt of that through increased border security, passport requirements – Mr. Jacobson himself has twice been stopped at the border because someone with the same name as his was on the do-not-fly list – and stinging rebukes from the Bush administration when former prime minister Jean Chrétien refused to have anything to do with the invasion of Iraq.
While the United States floundered in its Middle Eastern quagmire, alienated almost every friend it had and then sent its economy plunging into the abyss, Liberal and Conservative governments in this country balanced the budget, rebuilt the military, fought in Afghanistan and, when recession came, discovered the blessings of sound and conservative banking rules.
As a result, Mr. Jacobson observes, Canadians feel “more confidence in the Canadian economy, in the ability to create jobs, in the banking system, all those things,” while in the United States “we’re having our troubles, both politically and economically.”
But the Obama administration has repaired at least some of the damage to his country’s reputation. Witness the close co-operation of U.S., Canadian and other NATO nations in supporting the rebels who overthrew the Gadhafi regime in Libya.
Canadians and Americans must now decide whether to bind themselves more closely in continental security and cross-border trade when the Beyond the Border action plan is released later this month.
Mr. Jacobson is hoping that both countries will embrace most or all of its recommendations because it is in their mutual interest and because, “fundamentally, I believe the Canadian people like the American people.”
On Friday, Mr. Jacobson unveiled an exhibit of photographs taken on Sept. 11 of cards, candles, flowers and such that Canadians left at the U.S. embassy after the attacks. It reminds us of the remarkable solidarity between Canadians and Americans in those days, when Mr. Chrétien promised another U.S. ambassador, Paul Cellucci, before a throng on Parliament Hill: “We will be with the United States every step of the way: as friends, as neighbours, as family.”
Mr. Jacobson’s greatest hope is that this still holds true.
