Posted on 03/03/2005 11:13:24 AM PST by proud American in Canada
The fallout from Paul Martin’s decision not to participate in the ballistic missile defense program has been massive. I’m not sure Paul Martin knows what hit him.
The loony leftists aside, average Canadians are upset with the Liberal government and very, very concerned that this decision is going to directly impact them in the pocketbook, given that 80% of Canadian exports are sold to the U.S. market and that tourism here depends heavily on American visitors.
Many here suspect that the decision yesterday of a Montana judge not to reopen the U.S. border to Canadian beef would have turned out differently had Martin not double-crossed George W. Bush. The Canadian beef industry has been devastated by the closed border and may not survive if the border remains closed indefinitely.
The newspapers are full of supportive letters written by average Canadians and some have called the White House to express their disgust with Martin.
Also, the news media has ripped into Martin. 90% of the coverage has been highly critical of the substance of the decision and of the way he handled it, both here in Canada and in reporting it to the United States.
Yesterday’s National Post, a conservative paper, devoted two full pages to how not participating in BMD will adversely affect relations with the United States.
The first page, headlined, “From Texas, Ohio, New York and Boston, Americans ask one question of our Prime Minister: Why?” was devoted to reprinting editorials from U.S. newspapers.
Like many newspapers across the States, this page reprinted the infamous “Canadian Free Riders: Don’t Worry About Missiles; The Yanks Will Save Us” opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal (a subscription is required to read that at www.wallstreetjournal.com).
The second was a scathing piece from The Boston Herald, “Give Martin the Putin Treatment.” The original may be found here:
http://news.bostonherald.com/opinion/view.bg?articleid=70259
The third, entitled “The John Kerry of the North,” was from The Plain Dealer. The original may be found here:
http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1109413890261900.xml?oxedi
Finally, the Post also reprinted Freeper DH’s essay. DH owns a Texas company and has decided to no longer sell his products to Canada. He articulates his reasons why here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1352592/posts
The Post also featured a copy of DH’s “No sales to Canada” website page:
http://www.weldtron.com/general/Canada.htm
Finally, the second page was devoted to lengthy and perceptive pieces by Claire Hoy (“Betraying a Great Friend”) and Andrew Coyne, “The U.S. is in No Mood for this Nonsense”
I could not find a link to Hoy’s article, but Coyne’s article may be found here;
http://andrewcoyne.com/2005/03/us-is-in-no-mood-for-this-nonsense.php
Even left-leaning newspapers—including the Globe and Mail and the ultra-liberal Toronto Star--are criticizing Martin, whose government is demonstrating profound ineptness regarding its relationship with the U.S.
For example, today, the new ambassador to the U.S., Frank McKenna, opined that the refusal to participate in BMD is a “direct result” of softwood lumber and beef trade disputes:
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=e049e880-097d-4f69-a083-03d5a1138553
Oh really? If that’s why Martin came to his decision, it comes as news to Canadians, as Martin has never explained his position or allowed a parliamentary debate on this issue, as he had promised he would.
A recent national COMPAS poll reports that 54% of Canadians are against missile defense. However, this number is misleading. To better understand the situation, you have to break it down by province. Then you learn that amazingly, despite the liberal bias of most of the Canadian news media and the fact that not one politician has tried to make the case for joining BMD, 53% of Canadians outside of Quebec support it. It’s the 75% of Quebeckers who do not support it that skew the national poll.
In short, this debacle has all the makings of a situation where this minority government could come crashing down. The opposition could call an election and make the case that joining missile defense is a good idea and that in once again poking a stick in Uncle Sam’s eye, Paul Martin has seriously damaged the livelihood of average Canadians. A resounding Liberal defeat would go a long way to demonstrating to Americans that Canadians support them.
Unfortunately, we haven’t heard a peep from the Conservative leader, Stephen Harper, who appears to have been whisked away to an undisclosed location.
Is he, like Martin, aiming to appease Quebec? No one knows because he has apparently vanished, but one thing is certain--Canadians were stunned by this decision.
"Why was it that the countries that could fire missiles over Canada to the USA were not warned to not do it?"
I listen to these leftists and I can answer for them:
Because Canada has no enemies. No one would ever think of shooting at such a friendly, morally superior, tolerant, peace-loving nation. ;)
The FR community appreciates your summary thread here. Thanks for putting this post together.
I think Clive has the Canadian ping list, so Clive, please put NL2 on it.
NorthernLights, you're right, the Post isn't as conservative as it used to be. They never should have let Mark Steyn go.
DH is a Texas Freeper who owns a company and decided to no longer sell to Canada. Here's the website: www.weldtron.com.
Thanks for the link!
I wish he'd be out giving speeches, though, and really hammering Martin. I think it's a winning issue and if he would educate people on the significance of what has happened, he might be able to take this government down, as it deserves.
Thank you, JerseyHighlander! :)
Since the Post published the article I have received hundreds of emails and over 150 phone calls.
I was shocked when the ratio of sincere Canadians who were conservative and agreed with what I was doing outnumbered the liberals and fruitcakes about 9 to 1.
In both emails and phone calls, two words kept coming up over and over again. The words ASHAMED and EMBARRASSED!
We thought we had it bad with the Clintons, these conservatives are living in hell!
I saw your screen names and thought you might be interested in this--discussing the reaction of Canadians to Martin's decision.
Mad politician Disease ping
Wow, your action is getting some coverage now, huh? Good on ya. I believe in the original thread I referred to it as a lose-lose situation. It looks like it is tending more towards a win-win situation ... drawing attention from both sides of the border.
Wow! That is an amazing response. I'm happy to hear it.
I've also forwarded this thread to Lowell Green, the man who discussed your essay on the air.
You deserve at a cyber-round of applause for this!
Although the American in me hopes that George Bush doesn't give Martin the time of day from here on in, I do feel very bad for the Canadian people.
I love trains, too. Have a great trip! :)
FRegards... :)
Well, I've been ignoring my kids while working on this post :) so I will take a break from the computer for a while and check back later.
I guess that, now, Canadians are beginning to see why their government wants to take away their guns! Unarmed people are not citizens, they are subjects!
Thanks. Please add me to any Canadian ping list you have.
Please add my name to the list of embarassed and ashamed.As a canadian I have witnessed the gradual slide of our country into the grips of the leftist elites that purport to tell all of us what to do and think on every subject.Yet despite the overwhelming weight of biased liberal media,(there is no such thing as conservative talk radio here and Fox News is only a few weeks old) there remains a majority of canadians who regard the americans truly more as family than foreigners and are truly concerned by the current state of relations between our 2 countries.
Please be aware also that there exists within our country strong ideological differences and the West,(Manitoba to BC) has only elected a handful of liberal candidates in the last few elections.
The liberal base is in population dense Ontario and Quebec.
Ontario's reasons to vote liberal are still a bit of a mystery to me,but Quebec votes liberal for 2 reasons:1)older more conservative voters choose the liberals because historically they were the party that faught off all the separatists attempts to make Quebec a sovereign state.(maybe a little like the jewish voters that remain democrat to this day because of FDR)
2) a large segment of the Quebec economy and business depends on the incredible amount of patronage dolled out by the federal liberals in the province.
Finally all liberal policies are aimed at placating anybody in Quebec that wouls possibly vote separatist (Bloq Quebecois).That party is socialist to the extreme in all aspects, so basically canadian policies have been made in Canada for the last 30 years with only one objective in mind hoe to placate Quebec and get enough seats from that province to control parliament,and so far they have been able to do it to the detriment of the country itself.
Soory for the long post and our boring politics.
If one could whack off the right side of Canada . . . the "lefties" as it were . . . all of Quebec and a pinch of Ontario who believe they're a geographically-challenged suburb of Paris . . . you'd find we're not hated. LOL. If a frog had wings . . .
One need only to understand this to understand why liberals of ALL Nationalities hate us . . .
Liberals have never found ANY cause worth fighting for. Sure, they'll sling their purses now and then and whack you on the rump with their pink parasols when they get a nostril out of joint . . . but if a country is actually willing to . . . GASP!!!!! . . . kill and be killed for a cause or belief, they might as well be Martians to a Liberal.
Liberals have no moral compasses. There is no line drawn in the sand. EVERYTHING is negotiable to a Liberal and those who WILL NOT negotiate with terrorists or WILL NOT negotiate their sovereignty away are to be loathed by the Elitist, Know-It-All Jacques ChIRAQ-wannabes.
They're convinced they're the ONLY Enlightened Species in the Northern Hemisphere and the only ones they're willing to kill are . . . the TRULY Innocent . . . the UNBORN.
Liberalism in today's environment is a Mental Disease, especially taking into account the Yo-Yo's leading their movement. Like So-Dumb Insane, one can not negotiate with today's Liberal. One must chop it's head off . . . either literally or figuratively and, lately, sadly, I'm starting to change my preference for a particular method.
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