The Foreign Service Journal, September 2008

hen Sen. John Mc- Cain traveled to Ottawa in June, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper marked the occasion by trav- eling 1,730 miles to Saskatchewan. Even though the man who could become president of Canada’s neighbor and largest trading partner was speaking a block from the Parliament buildings, Harper’s Cabinet ministers were told to make themselves scarce. Such is the deeply entangled, counterintuitive and complicated relationship between Canada and the United States, particularly during a U.S. election year. It is a relationship in which Canadian governments are expected to be cordial, but not cozy; in which Republican administrations are often used as punching bags to win votes north of the border; and where, even with so much at stake for Canada, the government strives to remain aloof, to the point of feigning indiffer- ence. At no time in modern history has interest in a U.S. election been greater among the Canadian public. Like much of the world, Canadians have been caught up in the euphoria of a potentially historic moment when a young African-American changes America’s place on the world stage and the way in which the world views America. But while Sen. Barack Obama is being hailed on the streets of Mississauga, Montreal and Moncton, the man Canadians are embracing is a thinly sketched portrait when it comes to bilateral relations. John McCain, by comparison, is a fully-painted can- vas, his views on trading relations, the value of an ally and the importance of shared military responsibilities a com- fortable pair of slippers — especially compared to the evolving position of an Illinois senator who has never shown an abiding interest in issues on his country’s northern flank. If Americans are being asked to take a leap of faith on a first-term U.S. senator, Canadians are vicariously doing the same. A June poll of 1,000 Canadians found a major- ity believe Obama would be a “game changer’’ when it came to the U.S. image worldwide, and 26 percent of Canadians named him as the politician they admire most on the continent — five points ahead of Harper. Unanswered Questions Canadians would hail the election of a young multi- lateralist who would engage adversaries, not isolate them; who can change the way the Muslim world views Washington, and America’s tactics and policies in the post-9/11 world; and who will bring America to the table F O C U S O N T H E 2 0 0 8 E L E C T I O N S A RE C ANADIANS R EADY FOR A L EAP OF F AITH ? A MID THEIR FASCINATION WITH THE O BAMA PHENOMENON , OUR NEIGHBORS TO THE NORTH LISTEN AND WORRY . B Y T IM H ARPER W 20 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 8 Tim Harper is Washington bureau chief for the Toronto Star.