Bully Boy Bashes Us Behind Our Backs

Washington, District of Columbia
38°53' North; 77°02 West

Why did we, and our homegrown media, have to learn about this from the WaPo?

" When President Bush flew to Canada in his first international trip following his reelection, the White House portrayed it as the beginning of a fence-mending tour to bring allies back into the fold after a tense first term. But after Bush left, the Canadians were more furious than before.

They were stunned when Bush leaned across a table in a private meeting and lectured Prime Minister Paul Martin about opposing the U.S. missile defense system. And they were later taken aback by a speech filled with what they considered the same "old Bush" foreign policy pronouncements that opened the divide with the allies in the first place.

"If he's going to take that speech to Europe," said a top Canadian official who attended the meeting between Bush and Martin, "he's not going to get a good reception."

Guess Jeffie 'Button-Down-Boy' Simpson and Anthony 'Not-So-Saintly' Germain were too busy talking to Uncle Fred from Galiano and Mary Walsh respectively to go after some real sources.

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Thanks tons to ASZ poster extraordinare Eric who gave us an 18 hr heads up that would have allowed us to bang the entire Canadian Media Machine like a gong if we had taken him up on it late Sunday night. Unfortunately, we missed our main chance because, well, unlike Mike Duffy et al., we actually have to get up on Monday mornings and go to work for a living.

And sorry to reader B.A.D., but Buzzflash-assisted half-assed follow-ons from the Canadian Press just don't make the nut on this one because clearly there were PMO sources itching to let the cat out of the bag and the CanWestGlobal/BellGlobeMedia Axis of BoWeevils was just not up to the task.