I have to admit that I have a soft spot for Prime Minister Paul Martin. I like him. I disagree with him on certain policies, especially the introduction of socialized day care, but as Liberals go this is about as good as it gets (if he took his foreign policy queues from PM Blair he would be even better).
That being said I felt sorry for him yesterday. I thought PM Martin carried himself well in the press conference (no cringe moments like would happen with former-PM Chretien) but the conference very much exposed how irrelevant Canada is.
John Ivison put it this way in the National Post today:
...From the back of the room, Bush could just be heard answering questions on Ukraine, Iraq and intelligence reform, while Prime Minister Paul Martin remarked goofily that he like press conferences with the President because the latter got all the attention. We’ve seen this movie before, usually when the head of state of Liechtenstein, or some other sleepy backwater, is introduced to the Canadian press and roundly ignored. Yesterday, it was Martin’s turn to be the mouse that didn’t roar.
...But, despite all the backslapping, it was clear who was the boss. Maybe he’s “mending fences” but he’s pretty much the same as the old boss and Canada would be ill-advised to give him a dirty fork, far less, launch a retaliatory trade war. The message was: Keep sending us your oil and flu shots; throw all those goddamn foreigners in jail, or better yet, send them to Syria. And we’ll get back to you on that wood and beef stuff.
