09.06.2012 09:55 PM

Dear Obama

Britain is America’s “closest ally”? Really?

Thanks for nothing, Mr. President.

Sincerely,

Canada

35 Comments

  1. frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

    Whoops…..aside from that, ahem, glaring mis-statement……I thought it rather a good speech…..
    What I thought was wonderful was seeing an audience comprised of young, middle aged, old, male, female, gays, lesbians, blacks, hispanics, whites, asians, aboriginals, blue collar, white collar, servicemen…..basically a cross section of America.
    Compare and contrast that with the Republican crowd: older, white, male, and balding….kinda reminded me of a Reform convention…..

    • billg says:

      Its amazing that people see what they want to see.
      Not sure how you see gays and lesbians in a crowd of 20,000 people, or, how you could spot the difference between white collar and blue collar considering most were wearing T shirts.
      And what exactly is wrong with being white, male and balding or white female for that matter? Your statement is so 20 years ago. Gabby Gifford made the evening for me…I could look at that smile every day and the hope in her eyes could light a city.
      The rest was just political mush…same as the Rep’s.

      • G Betts says:

        You could tell which demographic they represented because they carried big signs that said it explicitly.

      • frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

        ……Sorry……but rainbow beads and rainbow flags are a pretty good indicator the person wearing/waving ’em is a “friend o’ Dorothy”….and excuse me for assuming that some of the people in the crowd were university/college educated professionals.

        Nothing wrong with being older, straight, white, male, female, either, until you start trying to govern like other ethnic groups or other sexual orientations dont count/exist….

        It may have been political “mush” to you…..but if it helps galvanize the female vote to prevent a Romney govt being elected that is going to tell them what they can or cannot do to their bodies, it has served its purpose…..

    • smelter rat says:

      Quite the opposite of the RNC, which looked more like a Klan rally than anything else.

      • Stephanie Powers says:

        What a cliched thing to say. Congrats though, cause you’ve proven your “progressive” pedigree beyond making all your fellow syncophants nod in approval.

        I observed a lot of severe mental imbalance last night, especially when the camera would pan the crowd after one of Obama’s key lines… as an example, when Obama quoted Lincoln, the next shot that woman looked like she was meta-physically orgasming. When he said the bit about supporting a woman’s right to feticide, the old woman in the next shot looked like an epileptic at a faith healing. Ridiculous.

        Obama is not some quasi-religious figure – he’s a crap leftist politician with tired ideas but a smooth delivery. The Republicans want to drive the US off a cliff, but Obama wants to do it with his foot on the gas. Lord help us, the next 20 years are going to be bleak, worldwide.

        • Derek Pearce says:

          Smelter did say something lame and cliched, so you rebut him with your own tired list of cliches? And believe me, Obama is the centrist in US politics. Republicans have become so extreme, so cray-cray ideological, they basically want to take the US back to the 1870s Gilded Age.

  2. Derek Pearce says:

    Other than that goof (which Americans won’t give a whit about anyhow) it was a solid speech and made an excellent case for his re-election. Also: Canadians and Brits have been forever declaring that they are the USA’s best friends and the US has until now never disabused either of us of that notion.

  3. Bob says:

    Come on let’s be real here. When his a US president ever said Canada was the closest?

    • The Doctor says:

      It’s true that Bush The Younger said “America has no better friend than Britain” in that highly publicized post 9/11 speech.

  4. ottawacon says:

    Regardless of his merits for Americans, Obama has been about as poor as expected for Canada.

    • Tiger says:

      Canadians have a habit of looking at American pols not through the lens of Canadian interests, but through the lens of “How would I vote if I were American?”

      Too emotionally invested.

      But that’s a measure of our closeness, I suppose.

  5. Tiger says:

    He said that to France, too, and upset Britain.

    Basically he means to use the elative and uses the superlative instead — it’s a verbal tic.

  6. John says:

    Do we even really want to be called their closest ally?

    Not as far as I’m concerned.

  7. Bruce A says:

    Everybody has a ‘special relationship’ with the US. For us, it’s being taken for granted. Which in some ways is good, considering that when the Americans taken a ‘special interest’ in you, the consequences involve carpet bombing. Not a good outcome.

  8. GPAlta says:

    Harper has antagonized Obama directly since the time when Obama was seeking the nomination in 2008. Harper’s embarrassing positions on the pipeline, on climate change, and on women’s health around the world are good reasons why Obama would not want to be associated with Canada today. If our relationship with the us-and the rest of the world for that matter- has deteriorated, blame Harper. Remember the UN security council seat?

    • Raymond says:

      “I am very pleased to welcome my friend and partner, Prime Minister Harper, back to the White House. Whenever we get together it’s a chance to reaffirm the enduring alliance between our nations, the extraordinary bonds between our peoples, the excellent cooperation between our governments, and my close personal friendship to the Prime Minister”

      Barack Obama, December 7, 2011

      Politically correct? Maybe. Or perhaps Obama really does like Steve. Either way, the vitriol displayed so often against the USA by Canadians does little to bolster our relationship.

      • Exactly Raymond. Canadian smugness is SO stifling. Hate it.

        • Koroma says:

          Hahaha! CANADIAN smugness?! U must be kidding me! Have u never heard of so-called “American Exceptionalism”?? It’s a pre-req to be Pres. and basically implies that no other country even compares to America!

          • Raymond says:

            If you’re talking about technological advancements, industrial capacity, military might, and global influence, then no other country really does compare. With the possible exception of the last decade, they have been a nation of superlatives for much of the past century. Canadians indeed have a neurosis when it comes to the USA. Inferiority complex. Penis envy. I dunno…just bring up topics like the Avro Arrow or American contributions to WW2 and Canadians lose their collective minds.

          • And Canadians are very smug about it. 🙂

  9. Philippe says:

    For better or worse, things have changed. In the Mulroney / Bush days, Canada and the US were gushing buddies. Not so any more- with the Harper Cons and Obama Dems ideologically opposed on most issues.

  10. Tim Sullivan says:

    It was about the only mistake … but to have said otherwise would have disrupted his flow. It would have lost its umpf factor and maybe a little high school if he had said “second-best friend”.

    • Tim Sullivan says:

      But maybe it is tautological. If the President says the UK us the best friend, that may make it so. This is subjective thing, not objective like “biggest trading partner.”

  11. Kevin says:

    In the “Five Eyes” (AUS, CAN, NZ, UK, US) all consider all the others to be equally close allies, except some are more equal than others apparently.

  12. Greg from Calgary says:

    I don’t know if I want to be their closest ally, Obama or no. America doesn’t have friends, America has interests.

  13. tdotlib says:

    Come now Warren – don’t give in to the innate Canadian need to always find insult and slight at every turn from an American President. I’d hazard a guess that Obama knows just how important Canada’s oil is to his country’s future as well as our forest products – it probably just made more sense in context to reference the UK in that instance.

    I never took you for someone who’s patriotism is roused by a lack-of-mentioning-our-name.

  14. Lee Shore says:

    Whadaya expect ?

    Obama’s p’d off .. what with Harper and Mackay waffling n sniveling bout the price of a few dozen f35’s we’ll get in 2025
    Canadian petro players are evicting homesteader American’s standing in the way of leaking dilbit pipelines .. (bad Oklahoma optics there baby)
    Ya gotta love how one so called Canadian company changed their name to US Oil Sands Inc to start digging large holes in Utah and sucking up precious water
    Enbridge turned the Kalamazoo River black with oil (oops that’s dilbit) then tried to cover it up with sand, myth, grass mats and bullshit
    Enron is now back in action in BC shale plays and Alberta .. another new name of course (hey ! Re-Branding !) EOG Resources
    All our raw logs go to China now.. nada for the US of A

    Our Harper government just doesn’t pass the Obama Democratic smell test.. they smell like Republicans.. look and sound like Limbaugh clone/clowns
    On the positive side we look and smell great to the great patriarch grinnin granddad Romney
    and his punk ass sidekick and antediluvian sponsors & lemmings .. and other dinosaurs stalking planet earth

    I can’t wait to see which one of these smelly Harper wanna be Republican thugs tries for a commemorative Canadian postage stamp first
    I can see them now.. on a 1 inch by 1 inch sticky little square… in heroic scenarios

    Peter Mackay signing over (patriating ?) the Conservative party to Stephen Harper.. bolts of lightning visible amidst distant stealth German made helicopters

    Harper writing his hoky (sic) book .. (which is taking longer than writing the holy bible took and more disciples, aids, spokespersons, agents, lawyers and apostles too)

    Harper on an arctic ATV wearing his limited edition ‘The Harper Party’ windbreaker
    (with 6 inch letters – made in China) (will his wife on her Japanese ATV be included, cropped or photoshopped out ?)

    John Baird in the Great Baird Rain Forest, herding bears on a huge mother of a bulldozer ..
    taking a break from his foreign affairs for a little pipeline ground breaking ceremony

    Julian Fantino @ the First Nation Roadblocks .. steely eyed with one hand on his pistol a la General George Patton

    Joe Oliver fly fishing for ? at The Tar Sands Resorts with dip net and hip waders .. kind of a post apocalyptic Huck Finn meets Andy of Mayberry meets Walden meets Freddy …

    Grinning Peter Kent wearing camo theme Roots ensemble.. posing with trophy alpha dead wolf pup and strychnine hamburger bait .. under wing of iconic boreal bush plane

    Keith Ashfield, with the last wild sockeye salmon, caught while trolling from the stern of the first VLCC Chinese oil tanker inbound to Kitimaat

    A glorious Ontario Gazebo … under a rampant Gravenhurst rainbow .. Tony Clement waterskiing behind a jet ski, a la Stockwell Day, into the future

    Buy the postage stamps.. buy the 1812 coins .. buy the blarney and the spin … a vote for Harper is worth 25 air miles ….. but wait, there’s more !
    The United States scares me … The level of ignorance is rising to astounding sea levels.. even in North Carolina
    If they see a fading British.. going going gone former colonial empire as their closest ally .. well, Amen and let’s watch Monty Python’s twit of the year contest again
    What that says for our fading and newly tarnished reputation under the government we seemingly elected to a majority
    is a deep dark question…. asked in a forest .. where a tree fell down, and nobody noticed.. in a country where an election was gamed and the government won’t take notice

    Congrats on the new book release… props to you… of course I’ll buy it
    I don’t always agree with you… but love that you speak Canadian .. loud n clear
    I enjoyed your purple microdot shot .. hurled in my general direction .. made me smile..
    Note how I have cleverly changed my name to flummox those who would form a fan club for me
    and hoodwink political deviants who would turn me in to Jason Toews …

  15. Koroma says:

    lol. C’mon it was a good zinger! And frankly, Britain is militarily a much bigger ally than us.

  16. Lib observer says:

    Warren, how do you square the following quote from you and watching Obama’s speech ,whether it be on a real tv or online? (real tv or online is still watching something on a screen!)

    I don’t watch TV at all. Zero, zippo, zilch. No news programs, no reality shows, no nothing. Haven’t for years. (And I am only able to post my Sun News clips on this web site because I see them online.)

Leave a Reply to Lib observer Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.