WHAT A difference a new president makes. For the first three years of his prime ministership, Stephen Harper regularly faced the taunts of opposition MPs about his alleged admiration for the United States and its president.
Considering how often it was used, opposition politicians like NDP leader Jack Layton, then-Liberal leader Stéphane Dion and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe clearly thought the worst insult they could hurl was to accuse Harper of being too close to George W. Bush.
When they didn’t like his policy on climate change, international affairs, whatever, they accused him of selling out Canada to curry favour with his buddy Bush.
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Integration with those imperialistic, gun-toting evangelical Yanks was Harper’s hidden agenda, or so the opposition argument often went.
Typical was this June 2007 attack by Dion on Harper’s international opposition to climate change targets set under the Kyoto Protocol: “Canadians expected from their prime minister that he would raise the bar. Instead, he helped president Bush lower the bar.”
Bush and the Americans were a dark force and the Conservatives were their Canadian farm team.
That was then. Now, it seems, the complaint is that Harper’s Conservatives are not close enough to the Americans.
In anticipation of his quick visit to Ottawa this week, Obamamania has swept opposition benches and the tune they sing has changed.
Why isn’t Harper more like his American counterpart? Why doesn’t Canada take its cue from Obama and his stimulus package?
Suddenly, America can be trusted.
On Feb. 13, Liberal House leader Ralph Goodale said he hopes some of Obama’s style rubs off on the prime minister. The new president could teach Harper “empathy” and a belief in government.
“President Obama obviously gets it and it shows,” said the Regina MP.
The previous day, Liberal environment critic David McGuinty complained that Canada is lagging behind the Americans in proposing to tackle climate change.
Duceppe wants Canada to be more like the (new) Americans in their treatment of Afghan detainees.
And Layton has been urging Harper to follow Obama’s lead on trade and some economic policies.
The height of the opposition frenzy to get close to their new role model was a proposal by NDP House leader Libby Davies, a ranking member of the Anti-American Party, that the Conservatives recall Parliament for a special sitting Feb. 19 to allow Obama to speak to them. Parliament is adjourned this week.
She said all MPs should have a chance to “receive and hear the new president of the United States in this House on his first visit to Canada.”
Whew. Suspicion has been replaced by true-believing, loathing with envy.
It might be time for the more starry-eyed to step back and realize that whatever the president’s communications skill and ability, he still heads a powerful country with interests to pursue that don’t necessarily coincide with Canada’s best interests.
Caution about importing American policies or priorities should not disappear simply because a more appealing president is on the scene. America envy is not much prettier than America hating as a part of the Canadian character.
![Protesters crowd a street carrying signs that read, "Global warming real. In other news, water is wet," and "Stop denying the [blue painted pic of the Earth] is dying."](https://static.producer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/29145152/158171_web1_2019-10-18T222818Z_1221762151_RC14C26A65A0_RTRMADP_3_CLIMATE-CHANGE-THUNBERG-1200-220x165.jpg)
