by Judi McLeod
June 7, 2004
When current and former world leaders attend U.S. Ex-President Ronald Reagan’s state funeral on Friday, conspicuously absent will be Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
among the leaders in respectful attendance will be German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and even Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, to name just a few.
Martin who had originally considered attending, passed on the funeral in order to return from the G-8 summit to the campaign trail of the Canadian federal election. The Prime Minister’s Office said Martin would send Governor-General adrienne Clarkson in his stead. This is the same GG who caused a public furor with a $5.3 million "circumpolar" trip last spring, and something of a tempest in a teapot when she turned up under a picture hat for Normandy D-Day ceremonies. Clarkson’s office often stands on ceremony by insisting that the GG has to be in attendance at major functions, if only because she represents the Queen. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was in Normandy on June 6, where she eloquently addressed the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
at the personal request of former First Lady Nancy Reagan who telephoned him, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney will deliver a eulogy at the presidential funeral, the first in more than three decades.
The ties that bind Reagan and Mulroney go beyond their happening to be leaders of neighbouring counties in the same chapter. Both leaders came from Irish stock. While it seems to remain below the american radar screen, decades later the Canadian mainline media still recall the pair’s rendition of the song When Irish Eyes are Smiling at the so-called Quebec City Shamrock Summit as "controversial".
as an example of how festering Canadian memory can be, Reagan and Mulroney belted out their song on St. Patrick’s Day, 1985.
The same media that tagged the duet as controversial are now lamenting that close ties with the Reagan family do not automatically guarantee a high profile for Canadians in the U.S.
The Toronto Star criticized CNN’s Larry King for identifying Mulroney as the "former prime minister of Great Britain" at the end of his Sunday show.
King apparently sent Mulroney on his way, saying,
"Good guy. Brian Mulroney, the former prime minister of Great Britain."
Unfortunately, prime ministers who succeeded Mulroney, may have given the U.S. more to remember with a phenomenon called "anti-americanism".
So it must remain a matter of speculation whether King would have dispatched former Prime Minister Jean Chretien or current Prime Minister Paul Martin with the words, "Bad guys. The anti-american Canadian prime ministers."
When america launched the war in Iraq, Canada, missing from action, remained noticeably aWOL. The finger of blame from those who disagreed with Canada’s passive stance was pointed at Chretien. But Martin, Chretien’s Finance Minister at the time, said and did nothing, paying not even lip service to his southern neighbours.
When it comes to the U.S., Martin, much more UN than U.S. is not there for his neighbour. He’s missing from action.
There are some that hope that Martin will be missing from action after Canadians go to the polls on June 28.
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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