When Obamamania swept into Ottawa for little more than seven hours last week, the downtown closed down.
For those of us who work on Parliament Hill, it meant cars could not make it to the Hill parking lot, buses were dropping us off 10 blocks before the normal destination and big guys with guns were on most street corners.
Getting into the same room as the political star meant far more bureaucracy than was justified when there would be just two Canadian questions allowed at the news conference.
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For Ottawans who have been to Washington, D.C., the logical question arises: the president is in that city every day going hither and yon and yet they seem to avoid closing downtown everyday. Why the Ottawa shutdown?
Presumably more security is needed when the president visits one of the empire’s outposts where dangerous dissidents may reside. Whatever.
Ottawa was awestruck as president Barack Hussein Obama made his first foreign foray and chose Canada because “I love this country” – a country he had visited once before. Crowds gathered and cheered where a few years ago during the unpopular reign of George W. Bush, they gathered and jeered.
The Canadian government arranged a lunch that was oh-so regionally sensitive – arctic char, prairie bison, Ontario wine, blueberries probably from Quebec and some Maritime fare.
Everything was planned to the moment.
Then his handlers arranged for the presidential entourage to divert from its Parliament-to-airport route to slip into Ottawa’s historic market area for some shopping – trinkets and cookies for his family and an “Obama Tail” version of the iconic Ottawa skating dessert Beaver Tail, which is a flat pastry covered with sugar, cinnamon and lemon.
His handlers had the good sense to have the president pay in Canadian currency.
But what were they thinking when they scheduled the Byward Market excursion?
Why not have him venture onto the Rideau Canal? Then he could have legitimately claimed that he had gone to Ottawa on his first trip abroad and walked on water.
After all, one fan on Parliament Hill carried a sign that said: “First there is God and then there is….” An arrow pointed at a picture of Obama.
Days after he was in Ottawa proclaiming a love of free trade and Canada, his administration approved protectionist rules on beef trade. No federal leader said they raised the issue with him, perhaps not wanting to undermine the joyous atmosphere.
Hey, he could have walked on water in Ottawa if he had chosen to do it.
