Martin spent a great part
of his day in Washington yesterday speaking out against U.S. protection
in global security matters and U.S. protectionism in long-running trade
disputes.
Iraq and the U.S.
campaign against terrorism was an overriding concern among his hosts,
with Bush expected to keep up that focus today.
Martin's
meeting today with Bush - his first formal session and second since he
became Prime Minister in December, is not expected to produce any
breakthroughs or major agreements.
But
his meetings yesterday, billed as a bid to widen and make the
Canada-U.S. relationship more "sophisticated, " earned him some early,
glowing reviews with key U.S. senators.
Delaware Senator Joseph Biden,
the top-ranking Democrat on the influential Senate foreign relations
committee, came away from a 45-minute meeting with Martin with effusive
praise for the Prime Minister's understanding of the issues, especially
on the Iraq question and where Canada fits in the post-war rebuilding
effort.
"He got it right
away, " he said. "I could have just as easily been speaking to the
president of the United States or the governor of a state or one of my
colleagues in the United States' Senate. It didn't need any political
translation. It's one of the incredible things about the relationship.
You don't have to explain. You can sort of finish each other's
sentences."
Biden,
an ardent critic of Bush's foreign policy, said he is looking to Canada
to play a bridge-building role between the United States and the many
nations with whom U.S. relations are now damaged in the wake of the
Iraq war.
"Canada and the
United States, it's like ham and eggs. It's kind of hard to separate
them, whether we like it or not. Thank God, at least on this side, we
love it, " Biden said. As for today's meeting with Bush, Biden
stopped short of saying he hoped Martin would personally try to change
the president's outlook, but he said of Martin's prospects: "I hope he
does well. The question is how will Bush do with him."
Biden, who has familial ties to Canada, said it was a bonus that the Canadian
government stayed out of Bush's war in Iraq, which is now causing
massive domestic political headaches for the U.S. president.
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