If Bush is Bart, We Must be Milhouse

Op-ed by Christopher Sands appearing in the National Post.

This article originally appeared on February 15, 2001 in the National Post and is reprinted with permission.

If Bush is Bart, we must be Milhouse
by Christopher Sands

If you have seen a few episodes of The Simpsons, you'll know who Milhouse is. One of Bart and Lisa's friends, Milhouse Van Houten is a kid who feels the punch before it is thrown. A chronic whiner (albeit sometimes with good cause), Milhouse is quick to complain of being slighted or cheated, and is always suspicious the other kids have made an implicit negative judgment of him by the way they treat him. He typically greets good news convinced it will turn out to be bad news in disguise. Lately, Canada has been acting worrisomely like Milhouse with regard to the United States. Perhaps this is only logical, now that we in the United States have elected George W. Bush -- the Bart Simpson of presidents. Still, since the election, many Canadians have expressed concern that the Bush administration will make Mexico the new U.S. best friend, or downgrade Canadian issues to a low priority on the U.S. agenda. Let's review the record so far: - Secretary of State Colin Powell holds his first meeting with a counterpart -- John Manley, Foreign Affairs Minister of ... Canada. - Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Defence Secretary, finds time to meet with the defence minister of a key ally for the first time? Art Eggleton ... of Canada. - After just two weeks on the job, President Bush clears his schedule to meet for the first time with a foreign leader ... Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Of Canada. This despite the fact Mr. Chrétien seemed to prefer Mr. Bush's former opponent, Al Gore, during the election and the Florida post-campaign mess. Surely, some Canadians fretted, the cold shoulder was coming any minute. But no, Mr. Bush was cordial and even suggested that he and Mr. Chrétien go fishing together (OK, he probably got that line from Brian Mulroney and it was a subtle dig at Mr. Chrétien's mocking reference to the personal relationship between Mr. Mulroney and Mr. Bush's father, but it was still a funny, and knowing reference). But Mr. Bush planned to visit Mexico on his first foreign trip as president -- not Canada! Yes, but with the third Summit of the Americas to be held in Quebec City starting April 20 -- just 90 days after Mr. Bush's inauguration -- he had his first Canada trip locked in before he was even elected. Two trips to Canada in less than 90 days would have been unusual, and you can hardly blame Mr. Bush for wanting to do a test-run foreign visit before Quebec, where he'll have to contend with 34 leaders from across the Western Hemisphere at once. And on the eve of his Mexico trip, Mr. Bush beat the most optimistic estimates by pundits (including me), announcing his first ambassadorial nomination just days after the confirmation of his full Cabinet: Governor Paul Celucci of Massachusetts, a close friend and supporter of the new President. Ambassador to where? To Canada.

Most presidents take months to get around to ambassadorial appointments, and then they often nominate big fundraisers with no particular experience with the country to which they're sent. Mr. Bush quickly asked Bill Clinton's ambassador, the effective and respected Gordon Giffen, to stay on -- even though Mr. Giffen is a Democratic political appointee - out of respect for Mr. Giffen's ability and an awareness that with a big meeting in Quebec City coming up, Mr. Bush would need Mr. Giffen's experience and familiarity with Canadian officials. Now Mr. Bush has taken steps to ensure a smooth transition from Mr. Giffen to his replacement -- all the more remarkable when you recall that Mr. Clinton took more than a year to replace his first ambassador to Ottawa, former Michigan governor Jim Blanchard, with Mr. Giffen. Mr. Celucci is a pick in the Blanchard mold. A successful governor and early supporter of the new President, Mr. Celucci is a smart politician and no neophyte when it comes to Canada. As governor, Mr. Celucci led regular trade missions north, and interacted with the premiers of the Atlantic provinces and Quebec, who participate in the regular meetings of the New England governors. Mr. Celucci campaigned to have the Sable Island natural gas pipeline go directly to Massachusetts -- he failed, but Massachusetts gets the gas via a pipeline through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick anyway. His state buys considerable amounts of power from Hydro-Québec. And Mr. Celucci is a nationally recognized tax cutter whose grasp of fiscal issues will help him to work with Ottawa as the impact of the Bush tax cuts hits the Canadian economy -- and he will be equally articulate in explaining the effect of the tax cut on the Canadian economy to U.S. officials such as Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who has to be concerned with the health of the Canadian economy, the largest U.S. trading partner. (In fact, Mr. O'Neill is meeting with his Canadian counterpart, Paul Martin, at a G7 finance ministers meeting this weekend in Palermo, adding to the roster of early contacts between top officials). Like Milhouse, some in Canada will no doubt persist in seeing bad news on the horizon despite the repeated gestures of friendship and respect the Bush team has made to Canada. Mr. Chrétien really did get off to a bad start with the new administration, but the Prime Minister is at his best when he faces a true challenge (unlike what he faces in Parliament) and has moved quickly to put the relationship on a good footing. But is Mr. Bush just being nice as he tries to grab Canadian energy (at top-dollar prices -- how sneaky) for California consumers? Is he planning to try and take Canadian water? Is he just too dumb to deal with brainy Canada? Come on, Canada. It is time to reject Milhouse and embrace the Lisa Simpson we know you really are. Christopher Sands is a fellow and director of the Canada Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.