George Bush Not Playing Nice with Canada

Here in the US, the White House is portraying Bush's visit to Canada as a "fence-mending" visit, but what he's been spewing doesn't sound very fence-mendish.

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."

First of all the missile defense system doesn't
work and hasn't ever worked, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that other
more-sane world leaders oppose it.

Canadian officials said their U.S. counterparts assured them that
Bush would not put Martin on the spot on his refusal to join the U.S.
missile defense system.

But Bush did confront Martin and used the sort of language that sets
Canadians on edge. "He leaned across the table and said, 'I'm not
taking this position, but some future president is going to say, 'Why
are we paying to defend Canada?' " said the senior Canadian official
who was in the room and noted that he had been assured by Rice and
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell personally that Bush would avoid
the subject.

If Bush is claiming to a be a "uniter not a divider", I think he needs to start playing a little nicer with the other world leaders.