Wow. Even Tom Clark says George Bush is charming.
In light of all the talk about the Canada/USA relationship leading up to the summit in Cancun, I thought I would toss in my two cents.
I am very pleased that the relationship with our American neighbours is warming up at the head of state level. But I also must add that my relationship with all the Americans I deal with has not changed. I deal with them every day in my job and have for 12 years. I have numerous (by that I mean hundreds) of American friends I have made over the years that I keep in touch with via the odd email or phone call. I have family scattered across the north from Central Michigan to New York City.
And I can tell you that my relationship with them does not change based on what our leaders say or do. Or how warm their phone conversations are. Or whether or not they call each other regularly just to say hi. Or whether various party members call the opposing leader a moron.
My relationships are one strand in a huge weave that crosses our border daily with an email or phone call. There are millions of people on both sides of the border with similar relationships to mine. Perhaps not to the same extent. Perhaps to a greater one. But in any case, this weave is what makes the relationship between the leaders irrelevant. How do I know this?
Think about what you would do if either of our nations declared war on the other? We would probably still go to work every day, still make those phone calls, still send those emails and still mail those packages. How many industries would fall over without the amount of trade and transaction between our nations? Do we not sell the Americans 30% of their oil? Does a billion dollars of goods not cross the border daily?
Millions of people on both sides are affected from couriers to electronic chip companies knocking on the doors of Nortel and ATI and RIM. From border guards and customs agents to art collectors waiting for that shipment of Inuit soapstone. From family split in the 1700’s and 1800’s by the various wars to the immigrants scattering across our nations today.
These are the relationships that show how our two nations are intertwined and how strong our relationship is.