EvanL
06-23-2004, 11:54 AM
MONTREAL (AFP) - Relations with Canada's giant neighbor to the south, the United States, have become a hot button issue for candidates in the final week of campaigning before general elections.
AFP/***** Images/File Photo
The candidates' charges run the gamut, from being "disagreeable" to the Yanks to being "on your knees" before the US powerhouse, Canada's largest trading partner.
Liberals pulled ahead of Conservatives in a voter preference poll released Tuesday, less than a week away from the June 28 vote, according to a poll by The Globe and Mail newspaper.
Neither party is close to an absolute majority. Liberals polled 34 percent of likely voters against 28 percent for Conservatives and 16 percent for the New Democratic Party.
Canadians are mostly worried about national health care or education, but the frankly pro-US positions of Conservative candidate Stephen Harper have allowed his adversaries to load foreign relations onto their political platforms.
"It is a Liberal strategy to draw the conservatives onto unfamiliar territory," Quebec University political science professor Stephane Roussel said.
Harper favored Canadian participation in a US missile shield and is largely in step with US President George W. Bush (news - web sites).
He has, however, tried to tone down his rhetoric in a country where the majority of voters are hostile toward Washington, especially since the United States snubbed Canada for refusing to join the US-led coalition in Iraq (news - web sites).
Recent trade spats over exported softwood, wheat and steel as well as mounting difficulties for Canadians crossing the border into the United States as Washington launches unconfirmed charges that Canada serves as a base camp for terrorists -- none of this has polished the US image in Canada.
In April, a poll showed 82 percent of Canadians felt that Bush was no friend of Canada.
In fact, the Conservative platform is short on detail, without a trace of Harper's proposal to create a secretary of state for US-Canadian relations or to raise Canada's ambassador to Washington to a ministerial post.
However, opponents have brought up Harper's former positions, beginning with a letter to The Wall Street Journal in which he apologized for Ottawa's refusal to fight in Iraq.
"Mr. Harper is entitled to his opinion, but to go (to) the United States and apologize, and to do it in The Wall Street Journal, a foreign paper, I can tell you that it is not the way that you earn respect," Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin said in a televised debate.
"We have to stand up for ourselves," said New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Jack Layton.
"You want to live on a planet separate from the United States," Harper shot back.
"He does not want to stoke the fire, but can no longer turn his back on it," Roussel said.
Martin himself championed better US relations as recently as six months ago, during the darkest moments under his predecessor, Jean Chretien.
"We've got to be able to disagree without being disagreeable, and that's what this government did and I think it has made a number of our trade problems worse," Harper said.
Martin was reproached from the left by NDP candidate Jack Layton of having discussed with Bush the US plan to build a missile shield to protect North America.
"I have made very clear that we will not be a part of the weaponisation of space ... I told him," Martin said in his defense.
AFP/***** Images/File Photo
The candidates' charges run the gamut, from being "disagreeable" to the Yanks to being "on your knees" before the US powerhouse, Canada's largest trading partner.
Liberals pulled ahead of Conservatives in a voter preference poll released Tuesday, less than a week away from the June 28 vote, according to a poll by The Globe and Mail newspaper.
Neither party is close to an absolute majority. Liberals polled 34 percent of likely voters against 28 percent for Conservatives and 16 percent for the New Democratic Party.
Canadians are mostly worried about national health care or education, but the frankly pro-US positions of Conservative candidate Stephen Harper have allowed his adversaries to load foreign relations onto their political platforms.
"It is a Liberal strategy to draw the conservatives onto unfamiliar territory," Quebec University political science professor Stephane Roussel said.
Harper favored Canadian participation in a US missile shield and is largely in step with US President George W. Bush (news - web sites).
He has, however, tried to tone down his rhetoric in a country where the majority of voters are hostile toward Washington, especially since the United States snubbed Canada for refusing to join the US-led coalition in Iraq (news - web sites).
Recent trade spats over exported softwood, wheat and steel as well as mounting difficulties for Canadians crossing the border into the United States as Washington launches unconfirmed charges that Canada serves as a base camp for terrorists -- none of this has polished the US image in Canada.
In April, a poll showed 82 percent of Canadians felt that Bush was no friend of Canada.
In fact, the Conservative platform is short on detail, without a trace of Harper's proposal to create a secretary of state for US-Canadian relations or to raise Canada's ambassador to Washington to a ministerial post.
However, opponents have brought up Harper's former positions, beginning with a letter to The Wall Street Journal in which he apologized for Ottawa's refusal to fight in Iraq.
"Mr. Harper is entitled to his opinion, but to go (to) the United States and apologize, and to do it in The Wall Street Journal, a foreign paper, I can tell you that it is not the way that you earn respect," Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin said in a televised debate.
"We have to stand up for ourselves," said New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Jack Layton.
"You want to live on a planet separate from the United States," Harper shot back.
"He does not want to stoke the fire, but can no longer turn his back on it," Roussel said.
Martin himself championed better US relations as recently as six months ago, during the darkest moments under his predecessor, Jean Chretien.
"We've got to be able to disagree without being disagreeable, and that's what this government did and I think it has made a number of our trade problems worse," Harper said.
Martin was reproached from the left by NDP candidate Jack Layton of having discussed with Bush the US plan to build a missile shield to protect North America.
"I have made very clear that we will not be a part of the weaponisation of space ... I told him," Martin said in his defense.