Huge Canada/US Diplomatic Storm Brewing

It should hardly be a surprise. I warned Prime Minister Harper so many times that his Ambassador to the US, Michael Wilson, was ruining Canada/US relations with his ridiculous strategy. I suggested that Wilson should "graciously" resign after NAFTA-gate or be forced out.

Now it appears that Michael Wilson was not acting on his own. The Chair of the Board of Canwest was also contributing his 2 cents worth. (Interestingly, that is also how much I was prepared to offer Canwest to buy the Star because of Canwest's huge financial mess!) No wonder the border file is such a disaster.

• "Derek Burney, a former Canadian ambassador to Washington, said the trilateral talks in and of themselves haven't generated much in the way of substance over the years.
  
  “When you get into a trilateral setting you're dealing with low-common-denominator commonality and you're evading some of the harder bilateral issues that need to be addressed.”

Yup, make the Mexicans angry just as the US is trying to help them out! And rub it in with new visa requirments just before the Three Leaders Summit too. Such perfect timing against our major competitor for auto jobs and plants.

It is too late now for them. Clearly, the Canada desk in the State Department in Washington is a close and avid reader of this BLOG. They have learned how Canada is trying to fool them. They have learned what the Ambassador Bridge fight is all about and how it can be used as the next softwood lumber case.

Oh and if you do not think that the Obama White House has not figured out how to stir up Congress to impose more anti-protectionist measures and not to remove the ones that are upsetting our Premiers, just wait until they discuss how Canada is trying to control the US border access points if things get nasty! Perhaps Stephen can threaten Obama with oil and energy as he tried with President Bush and see how far that gets him and us.

So someone had this neat idea how to show Harper that he did not count any more:

GLOBE AND MAIL

• "Unlike Mexico, Canada won't even get a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Obama during the Guadalajara summit. Mr. Harper will have to wait until Sept. 16 for a tête-à-tête at the White House...
  
  But Canadian officials already appear to be looking to the Sept. 16 meeting between Mr. Harper and Mr. Obama as more important than the Guadalajara summit for addressing pressing issues. The Prime Minister's Office made a point of announcing the September White House get-together during a press briefing yesterday on the North American Leader's Summit."

You got it. Obama snubbed Harper...to his face. Thus the need for damage control from the PM's PR team. I'll talk about September in a minute.

Here's more:

TORONTO STAR

• "PM won't meet with Obama one-on-one at summit in Mexico...
  
  Harper, who unlike Mexican president Calderon is not scheduled to have a one-on-one chat with Obama in Guadalajara, has instead accepted an invitation to see the U.S. president in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 16."
  

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

• "It's a heavy load, but the first fellas have given themselves a short workday's worth of face time to clear the in-box.
  
  “It isn't a time where you have these long philosophical talks over tequila,” analyst Shannon O'Neil says. “I don't think it's a creative process or meant to be one.”
  
  Instead, there will be short back-to-back one-on-ones Sunday evening — first Mexico's Felipe Calderon and Canada's Stephen Harper, then Mexico's leader and Obama. It's mostly high cotton between everyone these days, but a few weeds do persist."

Now that is really spelling it out in the boldest terms possible.

No Harper/Obama session. No face-time together. No serious talking about how to take over the Ambassador Bridge, again. What an insult to Canada, what a slap in the face to Harper. What a lesson to be taught to Canada! Mexico is more important than Canada, theri biggest trading partner.

Oh but you say, Harper has been invited for a one-on-one with Obama in September. Everything must be fine between our two countries. Harper can make his anti-Ambassador Bridge pitch then .

Hardly and here is where the huge faux pas came in.

I will bet that the White House asked the Canadian Embassy in DC to arrange a visit by the Canadian Head of State to come to DC. Remember when Obama was in Ottawa in February, we learned:

• "Obama invites Michaëlle Jean to Washington
  
  Governor General Michaëlle Jean discussed the plight of her native Haiti with U.S. President Barack Obama, who invited her to come to Washington – an invitation that was not extended to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
  
  American aides to the president who briefed the travelling White House reporters en route back to Washington Thursday said Obama and the Governor General exchanged "views about how we could be helpful to the government there in dealing with economic and social issues..."
  
  "President Obama told (Jean) that he'd like to talk further with her on this issue," said Marthe Blouin, an aide to the Governor General.
  
  Obama told Jean he wants to return to Canada with his family. "He told her he would like to see her again," Blouin said.
  
  "And he said to her that he would love to see her in Washington as well...
  
  It was clear Canada's first black governor general and Obama, the first black American president, hit it off. They beamed as they strode down a red carpet together.
  
  At one point, cameras captured Jean tossing back her head in laughter. "At that moment she was telling him that she felt it was like a love affair between him and Canadians," Blouin said later."

She is technically the Head of State but the Canadian Embassy mistakenly thought the President meant Harper as the political Head (or perhaps they knew but had to save face for Stephen again if there is a fall election). Stephen quickly accepted the invitation.

Obama must have been outraged. It was too late then for the President to say that Harper was not the invitee but that it was the Governor General whom he wished to see again! He was stuck.

It was worse than NAFTA-gate could ever be. Instead of Jean, he got Harper! Spending time with Stephen in Mexico was NOT going to happen.

Watch for a mini-crisis with Iran or North Korea around that time in Septemeber and the unfortunate cancellation of the Harper visit.