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Well, looks like the first official meeting between Dubya and my own country's PM Steve Harper is going on nicely: (from UPI)

Bush, Canada's Harper warm at White House

WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush and Canadian conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper met at the White House for the first time Thursday in obvious accord.

At a news conference after a closed-door meeting, Bush said he and Harper spoke about Iran's nuclear policy, North Korea's missile agenda, the Darfur crisis in Sudan, border security and other issues.

Bush praised Canada for its role in the war on terror and in the war in Afghanistan, and said he liked Harper's leadership style.

"He doesn't mince words. He tells me what's on his mind," Bush said.

Harper said he had expressed concern with congressional plans to tighten border security between the two countries, and said "if the U.S. ends up being closed to its friends, then the terrorists have won."

Bush in turn said it was ultimately up to Congress and noted the Senate passed legislation calling for a 17-month delay in security measures' implementation by 2008, although the House has showed no sign of interest in extending the date.

They also completed a softwood trade agreement that resolves an issue that's been annoying my Quebecois compatriotes for about 4 years now. Also, apparantly Bush and Harper are getting along great on a personal level: must come from the fact Harper (an Albertan) is a country boy much like Bush.

All in all, it looks like Harper, in one visit, has undone the four years of cooling relations that PM Paul Martin caused by his antagonism with Bush. Makes me proud I voted for him.

At a news conference after a closed-door meeting, Bush said he and Harper spoke about Iran's nuclear policy, North Korea's missile agenda, the Darfur crisis in Sudan, border security and other issues.

I am positively surprised that they are still giving attention to the Darfur situation; it had kind of fallen under the table in the last months, although I suspect that the crisis itself has not eased. The news around here definitely haven't spoken about it at all. I admire it when politicians show that they have a memory.

Harper said he had expressed concern with congressional plans to tighten border security between the two countries, and said "if the U.S. ends up being closed to its friends, then the terrorists have won."

Shouldn't this be doable by adapting Canadian border checks to US standards? Canada has no other land borders, and the one with the US is so long that securing it must be a logistics nightmare. Theoretically, if checks on travel into Canada are similar to the ones in the US, the Canadian-US border need not be much more secure than any interstate border. On the other hand, tougher borders means more hassle for travelers; I've heard a lot of people cursing about how hard it has become to get into the states even for short business travels. So it depends on how the Canadian government wants to strike the balance.

Yeah we can be more like friend again!

reignbow wrote:I am positively surprised that they are still giving attention to the Darfur situation; it had kind of fallen under the table in the last months, although I suspect that the crisis itself has not eased. The news around here definitely haven't spoken about it at all. I admire it when politicians show that they have a memory.

Well, since the media can't blame anything happening in Darfur on Bush's administration, they don't have a reason to pay attention to it.

That may be true in North America, but in Germany, news are reported pretty much by sensationism; while there is political bias in each outlet, in sum total they pretty much balance out. However, news are usually only reported when they are really fresh, and are soon supplanted by some other dominant topic. Half a year ago unemployment, then rising racism, recently football world cup and now a reform to federalism. The superficiality and lack of follow-ups is very annoying.