we may on occasion want our prime minister to express indignation to the president, there is not a lot the president can do — are we asking him to change the U.S. system of government and decision making? A close associate of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien told me of a meeting he was at in the Oval Office, where former President George W. Bush said to Chrétien: “If you can’t convince Senator Baucus from Montana, who is the head of the Commerce Committee, then I’d like to help but there’s not much I can do.” At best, all the president can do is use some of his limited political capital with Congress. And he normally needs all of that to advance his administration’s policies. When we ask the president to make the Canadian position part of his policies, how does that help his survival and success which depend on his sway among Americans and American interests, not among Canadians and Canadian interests?
As former Canadian ambassador to the U.S., Michael Kergin says, “The president operates in a free market economy. Congress is supreme in trade policy, the president is making all the time, all kinds of deals with Congress. So how much of his capital is he going to use in an area in which he has little power to help another country?”
The relationship does not at all work on the basis that if you lose favour in the White House you pay a big price. It is better to have good executive to executive relations, but so much of U.S. decision making is associated with Congress.
Speculating on relations between the two leaders is something of a parlour game. Not infrequently, I’m asked by the media to comment on aspects of the Canada-U.S. relationship. Their favourite question is, “How is our prime minister getting along with the president, and what does this mean?”
As you know, here’s my answer: “Their relationship is but a part of a broad and deep interaction between the two countries. Moreover, the president doesn’t have that much power in our relations with the U.S. He constantly has to consider Congress. And Congress has jurisdiction over a lot of the issues like U.S. trade laws that preoccupy Canadians.”
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