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AROUND THE WORLD 4: Someone New in the Neighborhood

Canada and the United States have not been the friendliest of neighbors lately. Differences over the war in Iraq and President Bush's decisions made relations a bit uncomfortable under the last Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Cheretien. However, all that could soon change - after eleven years in office, Prime Minister Cheretien was replaced last Friday by the leader of the Liberal Party, Paul Martin.

A slew of recent actions by both countries have created tension. Just this week, President Bush announced to the world that the U.S. would only hand out reconstruction contracts in Iraq to "friendly coalition folks", which are those countries that sent troops to help fight in and rebuild Iraq. This is a huge hot button for big powers such as France, Germany, and - of course - Canada, who opposed sending troops into Iraq because the United Nations did not approve the fighting. These and other countries would, however, like to have a piece of the $18.6 billion contract pie, and say it is not fair for Bush to choose which nations get the bids.

Still, the contracts issue is just one of many that have popped up over the past year to create animosity and bad feelings between these two North American powers. Members of Cheretien's administration publicly insulted President Bush, calling him both a "moron" and a "failed statesman". Both countries blamed each other last summer over the big blackout, the worst ever in the U.S., that wiped electric power from New York City. And finally, the U.S. has made trade hard for Canada with special tariffs on softwood lumber and restrictions on Canadian beef because of one single case of mad cow disease. Officials say relations are not as awful as they are cracked up to be, but they could be better.

Martin seems to want more agreement with the U.S., but he hasn't said anything about his specific plans in that direction. The structure of Canadian government is pretty different from the U.S. - it is similar to the system used in England. The Prime Minister is the head of the government and holds a lot of responsibility: choosing the government, proposing the laws, and setting the agenda. This gives Paul Martin most of the control over the decisions Canada makes in the near future.

Interestingly, polls show that the most pro-American Canadian Prime Minister was also the least popular among his own people! It will be interesting for all to see whether Martin will be popular enough to last as many years as Cheretien did.

--Written by Kari Elassal

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Read AROUND THE WORLD 1: Stuck in the Cold