CanWest: Tories stress U.S. co-operation as top foreign priority

OTTAWA - Canada and the United States have entered a ''new era'' of co-operation, the American ambassador said Tuesday, hours after new federal government documents proclaimed Ottawa's top foreign policy priority to be ''greater collaboration'' with Washington.

Though Prime Minister Stephen Harper has always made strengthening relations with Washington a key part of his international agenda, the Canada-U.S. relationship was identified as the country's top foreign policy priority in the government's spending estimates formally tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

According to the estimates, tabled by Foreign Affairs, that means backing the U.S. in its ''indispensable role'' in promoting Middle East peace, deepening ties between Canadian and American diplomats abroad and an attempt ''to balance American priorities with traditional Canadian foreign policy'' in dealing with major international issues such as Iran's nuclear ambitions and Iraqi reconstruction.

Later in the day, a speech in Ottawa by U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins heralded the onset of a renewed era of stronger ties between the two North American neighbours, as he took a thinly veiled swipe at the previous Liberal governments of Paul Martin and Jean Chretien for undermining relations with the Bush administration in Washington.

''We are truly entering a new era of co-operation where there is a focus on shared responsibilities for dealing with problems certainly more interested today on fixing the problem rather than fixing the blame,'' Wilkins told hundreds of delegates at the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada's annual meeting.

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When Clinton was president, there were excellent relations between our two countries! Martin and Chretien got along very well with Clinton. Chretien still sees Clinton and goes golfing with him occasionally. Every time I hear Harper or one of his minions saying how they have improved Canada-U.S.A. relations, I wonder why the Liberals don't point this out. The problem is George Bush and his administration. They do not have good relations with ANY western nation!
Incidentally....I don't for a moment believe the bull shit they are trying to feed us that Bush and Harper are good friends! They are ideologically in tune, but I can't see them having anything in common on a personal level. Can you see Harper clearing brush on the Crawford ranch?