T
The420Guy
Guest
Those darned Canadian hopheads! That's been the White House's reaction to
the news that Premier Jean Chretien of Canada wants to decriminalize
marijuana possession north of the 49th parallel. Last week, Chretien told
a cheering audience that he would introduce legislation soon. (''Don't
start to smoke yet,'' he warned.) But he may be preempted by Canada's
Supreme Court, which plans to rule on an important marijuana test case
this week.
On Friday, a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reporter asked David Murray,
assistant to White House drug czar John Walters, what he thought of all
this. Murray fired off the rhetorical shot heard from Kitimat all the way
to Kippokok: ''We would have to respond. We would be forced to respond,''
Murray said. Why? Because pot legalization is dangerously anti-American.
Just look at the longhair maniacs who support decriminalization, wild men
like financier George Soros, Nobelist Milton Friedman, and former
Secretary of State George Shultz.
In the short term, the Canadians don't give a fig about what the White
House thinks, because the Bush administration has blown a hole a mile wide
in US-Canadian relations. A few weeks ago, ambassador Paul Cellucci
upbraided Canada for not joining the ''coalition of the willing,'' which
apparently doesn't mean exactly what its name implies. (I am wondering,
idly, what plum the current lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, will land
after faithfully serving a forceful Republican governor, as Cellucci did.
Ambassador to Talbots? But I digress.)
Cellucci told the Economic Club of Toronto that many Americans were
''disappointed and upset'' that Canada was not supporting the
Bush-Rumsfeld improvement program for Iraq. The reaction north of the
border was swift and sure. ''Yours is the only country that has ever
invaded ours, and it would do so again in a wink if it thought its
interests here were seriously threatened,'' thundered Halifax
Chronicle-Herald columnist Silver Donald Cameron. ''We need no lectures
from Americans about the defence of liberty and democracy.''
Shortly after Cellucci's tirade, President George Bush canceled a state
visit to Ottawa. The next day Bush invited Prime Minister John Howard of
Australia for a sleepover at the Crawford, Texas, Ponderosa, a diplomatic
message ''delivered with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer,'' quoth the
Baltimore Sun. This is the message: Australia = good, brave, ''willing''
Commonwealth country; Canada = bad, stoner, un-''willing'' Commonwealth
country. In case Canada is hard of hearing, the White House slapped a
punitive tariff on its wheat exports over the weekend to make sure it's
paying attention.
The real problem with Canada is that it has become yet another troublesome
democracy, like Germany, France, and Turkey, with each nation's elected
officials answering to their constituents rather than to the voice of
America. Worse yet, the prospects for regime changes in these recalcitrant
countries seem bleak. The Third Infantry Division can do only so much, and
securing Paris, Ankara, Ottawa, and Berlin is a tall order, even for the
legendary heroes of the Marne.
Source: Boston Globe
Author: Alex Beam, Globe Columnist
Contact: letter@globe.com
Website: Boston.com: Local breaking news, sports, weather, and things to do
Pubdate: Tuesday, May 6, 2003
the news that Premier Jean Chretien of Canada wants to decriminalize
marijuana possession north of the 49th parallel. Last week, Chretien told
a cheering audience that he would introduce legislation soon. (''Don't
start to smoke yet,'' he warned.) But he may be preempted by Canada's
Supreme Court, which plans to rule on an important marijuana test case
this week.
On Friday, a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reporter asked David Murray,
assistant to White House drug czar John Walters, what he thought of all
this. Murray fired off the rhetorical shot heard from Kitimat all the way
to Kippokok: ''We would have to respond. We would be forced to respond,''
Murray said. Why? Because pot legalization is dangerously anti-American.
Just look at the longhair maniacs who support decriminalization, wild men
like financier George Soros, Nobelist Milton Friedman, and former
Secretary of State George Shultz.
In the short term, the Canadians don't give a fig about what the White
House thinks, because the Bush administration has blown a hole a mile wide
in US-Canadian relations. A few weeks ago, ambassador Paul Cellucci
upbraided Canada for not joining the ''coalition of the willing,'' which
apparently doesn't mean exactly what its name implies. (I am wondering,
idly, what plum the current lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, will land
after faithfully serving a forceful Republican governor, as Cellucci did.
Ambassador to Talbots? But I digress.)
Cellucci told the Economic Club of Toronto that many Americans were
''disappointed and upset'' that Canada was not supporting the
Bush-Rumsfeld improvement program for Iraq. The reaction north of the
border was swift and sure. ''Yours is the only country that has ever
invaded ours, and it would do so again in a wink if it thought its
interests here were seriously threatened,'' thundered Halifax
Chronicle-Herald columnist Silver Donald Cameron. ''We need no lectures
from Americans about the defence of liberty and democracy.''
Shortly after Cellucci's tirade, President George Bush canceled a state
visit to Ottawa. The next day Bush invited Prime Minister John Howard of
Australia for a sleepover at the Crawford, Texas, Ponderosa, a diplomatic
message ''delivered with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer,'' quoth the
Baltimore Sun. This is the message: Australia = good, brave, ''willing''
Commonwealth country; Canada = bad, stoner, un-''willing'' Commonwealth
country. In case Canada is hard of hearing, the White House slapped a
punitive tariff on its wheat exports over the weekend to make sure it's
paying attention.
The real problem with Canada is that it has become yet another troublesome
democracy, like Germany, France, and Turkey, with each nation's elected
officials answering to their constituents rather than to the voice of
America. Worse yet, the prospects for regime changes in these recalcitrant
countries seem bleak. The Third Infantry Division can do only so much, and
securing Paris, Ankara, Ottawa, and Berlin is a tall order, even for the
legendary heroes of the Marne.
Source: Boston Globe
Author: Alex Beam, Globe Columnist
Contact: letter@globe.com
Website: Boston.com: Local breaking news, sports, weather, and things to do
Pubdate: Tuesday, May 6, 2003
