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03/04/2005 Archived Entry: "A correspondent on Cellucci"

An e-correspondent offered this interesting response to yesterday's post on the cooling US-Canada relations. In it, I described the arrogance and (arguably) the stupidity of Paul Cellucci, the now-outgoing US Ambassador to Canada whose statements to the press have embarrassed PM Martin by making him look 1) like a Bush poodle in initially promoting the US/Canada missle shied defense program and, then, 2) (after jettisoning the deal) utterly irrelevant to the US's decision to fire missiles over Canada whenever it wishes.

The e-correspondent wrote, I attend university [in Canada]...Recently, Paul Cellucci visited...for a Q & A session with the students. A few hundred people packed into University Hall to hear him. I was excited because this was my first contact with a representative of the Bush regime. I quickly got in line for the mic and the closer I got the more nervous I felt. When I finally made it to the front of the line I quoted to him from George Washington's farewell address of 1796. "Avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty." I gave some other quotes that I can't remember, and I asked, "Why should Canadians ignore George Washington's foreign policy advice and join the missile defence shield?"

Cellucci stood alone on the stage, with a pained look on his face. He grimaced and sighed. Finally he said quietly, "You learned that trick from Bush, when he came to Halifax and quoted your former prime minister, didn't you?" Then he launched into his usual Canada-needs-a-seat-at-the-table defence. What a character.