OTTAWA - The fact that a top Canadian official could dismiss U.S. President George W. Bush as "a moron" is a telling indication of how far political ties between the world's two largest trading partners have deteriorated over the last 18 months.
The reported insult by Françoise Ducros -- communications director to Prime Minister Jean Chretien -- reflects increasing frustration inside Ottawa with Bush's often unilateral approach to international affairs since he won the 2000 election.
"The fundamental problem with the current administration in Washington is that it's highly unintelligent," one senior Canadian official told Reuters a few days before the comments were made to journalists in Prague during a NATO summit.
Chretien said on Friday that Ducros did not remember making the comments, but had offered in any case to resign. He rejected the offer.
Canada's foreign policy is firmly based on multilateral diplomacy and Ottawa has therefore watched with ill-disguised displeasure as Bush walked away from the Kyoto climate change protocol, the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and talks to ban biological weapons.
Canada also objected strongly to the idea of a preemptive U.S. strike on Iraq, fearing this could fatally damage the authority of the United Nations
"There is enormous cynicism among government ministers about Bush's motives for wanting to attack Iraq," said another well-placed official.
On a personal level there is little love lost between Chretien, who sits firmly on the left wing of the ruling Liberal Party, and the right-wing Republican President.
"I think rancor is a very good word to use and it's partially the effect of certain issues but it's also partially an effect of the personalities of the two leaders," said David Rudd, executive director of the Canadian Institute for Strategic Studies.
Tensions between leaders of the countries have arisen in the past. Former U.S. President Richard Nixon once referred to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as "that asshole" but other relations have been much closer -- such as between Chretien and former President Clinton.
In the wake of the "moron" comments, Canadian ministers were quick to stress the importance of the relationship with the United States.
Bilateral trade is worth around $1 billion a day, with Canada sending 85 percent of its exports south. Law enforcement agencies in the two countries work closely together and Canada sent 2,000 troops to Afghanistan for six months to take part in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
But the list of irritants is growing. Canada is locked into costly trade disputes with Washington over exports of softwood and wheat and was extremely upset when U.S. officials started fingerprinting Canadian citizens born in a number of Middle Eastern and African countries.
Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal said the practice showed "the ugly face of America". Earlier this year, Transport Minister David Collenette likened some leading U.S. players to bullies on an ice hockey rink.
"I think the water is lapping at our chins. As long as our mouth and nose remain above the crest of these waves I think we're going to be OK until such times as issues are resolved or perhaps there's a new person occupying 24 Sussex Drive," Rudd told Reuters, referring to Chretien's official residence.
"We have some major differences right now but we are foul weather friends."
Chretien has little time for the U.S. political system and rarely passes up the chance to stress what he sees as the advantages to the way things are done in Canada.
One notable example of this came during a NATO summit in 1997 when Chretien spoke frankly to then Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, not realizing his microphone was turned on.
"In your country or my country, all the politicians would be in prison because they (the Americans) sell their votes...(They say) 'If you want me to vote for NATO, then you have to build a bridge for me in my electoral district'," he said. "It's incredible."
TORONTO - A private comment that became very public was the talk of Canada on Friday, with newspaper and broadcast reports detailing how an aide to Prime Minister Jean Chretien called President Bush a moron.
Political foes demanded the ouster of Françoise Ducros for what she said Wednesday at the NATO summit in Prague. Ducros offered her resignation Friday, but Chretien refused to accept it.
"What a moron," is the quote attributed to Ducros, Chretien's communications director, during what she called a private conversation with a reporter that was overhead by other reporters who wrote about it.
"If I made comments in the context of what I understood to be a private conversation, I regret that they have attracted so much media attention," Ducros said in a statement. "I accept full responsibility for them and I sincerely apologize."
Chretien, at his closing news conference Friday in Prague, said he turned down Ducros' offer to resign. Ducros told him she was unsure if she made the remark but acknowledged she uses the word "moron" frequently, Chretien said.
"She may have used that word against me a few times and I am sure she used it against you many times," he told journalists, adding that "we don't live in as civilized a world as we used to, where private conversations are private."
Back in Canada, the opposition Canadian Alliance hammered the issue in Parliament, saying the comment showed the anti-American bent of Chretien's governing Liberal Party.
"Isn't it a fact that this anti-American attitude hurts our relationship with the United States, our biggest trade partner?" Grant Hill of the Alliance asked during daily question period.
Not so, said Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, who described relations between the North American neighbors who share the world's largest trade relationship as sound, despite occasional problems.
Chretien also denied the incident harmed relations with Washington, saying he received no official complaints from U.S. officials at the summit. On Thursday, when first asked about the reported comment, he said Bush was "not a moron at all, he's a friend. My personal relations with the president are extremely good."
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told American reporters Thursday: "I just dismiss it as something from someone who doesn't speak for the Canadian government."
Despite their military ties and common democratic values, Canada has traditionally adopted more liberal social policies. Examples include diplomatic ties with Cuba, a ban on capital punishment and more lenient immigration policies.
Increased disputes between Ottawa and Washington were expected when the conservative Bush was elected in 2000 to succeed Bill Clinton, whose administration had closer ideological ties with Chretien's Liberal Party.
Since Bush's election, the United States has imposed punitive duties on softwood lumber imported from Canada and is investigating possible penalties on Canadian wheat.
Nevertheless, Canada took in flights diverted from U.S. air space after the Sept. 11 attacks and contributed troops, ships and reconnaissance planes to the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan (news - web sites). Chretien said Canada also would take part in a U.N.-authorized attack on Iraq.
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