While Prime Minister Jean Chretien is touring Europe this week, looking to build support for an African initiative at next month's G8 summit in Alberta, it's likely his hosts will be much more interested in talking about cowboy politics -- and that doesn't mean Alberta's near-religious support for the likes of Ralph Klein.
Europeans have become increasingly uneasy about what they call American unilateralism, the propensity for the U.S. to go it alone in important international initiatives.
These unilateral moves include decisions to build a space-based weapon system and to pan treaties on ridding the world of land mines and uncontrolled distribution of small arms, withdrawal of U.S. support for an international court of justice and the Kyoto accord, and a bellicose posture toward what President George Bush dubs the axis of evil.
Just as worrisome for our European friends have been the U.S.'s back-door diplomatic efforts to oust the heads of two international commissions, one studying biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, and the other the impact of global warming.
It is a shock to American and European observers alike that the most conservative U.S. government in a generation is adhering to the advice of that most liberal of politicians, Thomas (Tip) O'Neill, that "all politics is local."
O'Neill also suggested it would be folly to risk electoral loss simply because one refuses to run a deficit.
The latter is being carried out in spades by the U.S. government. It has decided to tap its exhausted treasury to support further farm subsidies and to pass the largest military budget in history (at $383 billion, it represents a 15-per-cent increase over last year and is taking the largest single jump since the 1980s). Meanwhile, the U.S. federal deficit is estimated to exceed $100 billion this year and to reach $300 billion in 2003.
All this has long-range implications for the rest of the world.
Canada is already in a delicate position when it comes to relations with the giant to our south. The $365 billion to $400 billion a year in trade between our countries makes any threat to the U.S. economy something we can't ignore. The profligate spending competition between Congress and the White House is probably the greatest long-term threat on the horizon to Canada's economy.
But Canada has more than its economy at stake.
We have already told the world that our ability to ratify the Kyoto Accord has been put in doubt by Washington's decisions. Similarly, our territory is clearly earmarked as strategic to the Americans' Northern Command (and our military considered a part of it). Yet there seems to be little discussion in Ottawa about what this means to our budget and our sovereignty.
Canada was one of the first nations to sign on to the American Joint Strike Fighter program, which would see the creation of a new breed of military aircraft. Questions are growing as to the viability of the program and how it is being subverted by U.S. political interests.
There is a lesson for Canada (and any other country interested in military investments with America) in the way the U.S. handled the $11-billion Crusader howitzer acquisition. Many deem this weapons system obsolete before it is fully developed, since it was conceived to battle Soviet armies which might try to cross Europe. Nevertheless, the jobs it provides in key U.S. states have made it impossible to cancel outright.
American pundits are concerned about how Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, has effectively hijacked his country's foreign agenda from the State Department, in order to use it to win votes at home, as O'Neill's advice suggested.
The Europeans have already begun battling Bush by advertising in swing states to convince voters not to support Republicans. It's hard to imagine how Canada, with its attention apparently drifting toward Africa, can avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
While the African initiative is a noble one, let's hope Chretien's determination to make this his legacy doesn't result in him getting blindsided by what's on the minds of the other seven world leaders who are packing their bags for Kananaskis.
Steven Gibb, Gerry Klein, Les MacPherson, Sarath Peiris and Lawrence Thoner collaborate in writing SP editorials
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