Nearing the end of his fourth year in office and running out of countries to visit, President Bush visited Canada in late 2004. Mr. Bush was unable to talk before the Canadian Parliment, as is the custom of visiting heads of state, due to his delicate constitution. Instead, he chose to speak, in the words of his press secretary, "directly to the people," by talking to a select group of citizens in remote, news-starved Halifax, Nova Scotia.
One ungrateful Nova Scotian responded to President Bush's magnanimous gesture of good will by saying, " "I do not like Halifax and Haligonians being used as a photo-opportunity for a world leader who has blood on his hands and desperately needs any good international press he can get....It isn't as if Atlantic Canadians have been waiting breathlessly for recognition from Mr. Bush....This...is unreal, belated and sort of silly."
Nevertheless, a front-page New York Times caption accompanying the photo of Barney the dog greeting Bush upon his return struck the correct chord in both countries: "After a visit to good friends in Canada, a welcome home from a best friend." Another mission accomplished.
of Canada's Prime Minister, delivered in English.
in public places throughout the land of the maple leaf.
perhaps because they would have liked him to have brought some free kegs of that wonderful American beer
that is the envy of all beer-drinking countries the world over.
of the levers of government In North America, projecting years of cooperative
progress in the name of freedom and democracy.
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