The Workday Liberal

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin responded to criticism by U.S. ambassador David Wilkins today.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin escalated a war of words with the United States on Wednesday, telling Washington not to dictate to him what topics he can raise in the run-up to Canada's January 23 election.

But U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, who warned Canadian politicians on Tuesday not to bash the United States as part of their campaigning, denied on Wednesday he was trying to control the election debate.

This is yet another case of a Bush administration flunky denying what is self evident. Ambassador Wilkins says he is not trying to control the election debate, yet his criticism of Prime Minister Martin was in response to Martin's rhetoric regarding an issue of the election debate. I suppose Ambassador Wilkins is not trying to control the entire election debate, but he certainly is interjecting his opinion into this aspect of the issue.

It seems however that not only are the Bushovichs receiving fire from the liberals north of the border. The conservatives are none to happy about this as well: Here is Stephen Harper, leader of the conservative party:

"I actually think the (U.S.) ambassador's intervention was inappropriate... I don't think foreign ambassadors should be expressing their views, or intervening in an election," Harper told reporters in Vancouver.

Sheesh... even the side the Bushovichs want to win in the upcoming election are requesting that the ambassador butt out of the debate. It seems clear that Mr. Harper considers ambassador Wilkins foray into the debate an intervention in the election. So if everybody north of the border, agrees it is an intervention in the election on behalf of the United States, who is our ambassador to claim that it is not? He is a representative of an administration that denies self evident truths and plays in a world of fantasy... that's who he is.

We can only hope that Canada has not installed Diebold machines at the precincts. Wouldn't that be ironic. Not only did Diebold deliver Ohio to Bush, they could deliver Canada as well!