by Judi McLeod
September 28, 2004
Bill Graham, Canada's former Foreign affairs Minister and current Defence Minister is "not that worried" about the anti-american rhetoric of Canadian Members of Parliament.
Graham told CanWest News Service today that remarks from caucus colleague MP Carolyn Parrish, who portrays supporters of the U.S. ballistic missile shield program as members of the "coalition of the idiots" don't make his job any more difficult when dealing with the George W. Bush cabinet and american Congress.
"They recognize that there's crazy rhetoric," Graham said. "That Pat Robertson may say Canada's a bunch of lunatics and we may have somebody here say the americans are a bunch of lunatics...I'm not that worried about it."
Not everybody would file anti-american commentary by Canadian politicians as innocuous "crazy rhetoric".
Parrish's "crazy rhetoric" is not contained to Canada's possible entry into the controversial U.S. american missile shield program. In the run-up to the Iraq war last year, Parrish created a public furore on both sides of the border when she said, "Damn americans. I hate those bastards."
Nor does Parrish, handily re-elected in last June's federal election, have a monopoly on american bashing. Former cabinet minister Herb Dhjaliwal called Bush a failed statesman in the hot debate in last year's decision by the federal Liberal government to keep Canada out of the war in Iraq.
Claiming that anti-american remarks have never had a concrete negative impact on any dealings between Ottawa and Washington, Graham said in looking back on that stressful chapter he wishes, "that some voices had not said what they said."
Relations with the U.S. play a large role in Graham's new post as defence minister, just as they did in his previous job as foreign affairs minister.
There are some that would say that Graham was as wishy-washy as Foreign affairs Minister as he is as Defence Minister. One of the most recent headaches in his new job came when the mainline media revealed that under his watch, the government had paid millions of dollars for state-of-the-art Canadian military aircraft—which had nowhere to fly!
about the impact on the daily business affairs between Ottawa and Washington in the face of anti-american rhetoric, the cabinet minister insists it's non existent.
"I guess I'd have to go to Washington and have some congressman come to me and say. `Bill, we're not going to do this deal because Carolyn Parrish said this.' I don't think we get that. I haven't seen that," Graham said.
although he concedes that as a trusted ally, Canada should express its disagreement with the U.S. without resort to insults, he adds, "I think what we have to do with the United States, being their neighbour, being their friend, is to bring them our counsel and say, `look you're making a mistake here."
Meanwhile, it's not the U.S. but the Canadian minister of Wishy-Wash that doesn't seem to get it.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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