Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin warned on Wednesday he would not "be dictated to," one day after the US ambassador told Canadian lawmakers not to drag the US' good name through the mud.
Martin, fighting for his political life ahead of a Jan. 23 election, said on the campaign trail: "I am not going to be dictated to as to the subjects I should raise."
"This dispute with the US demands leadership at the national level in Canada, even if that leadership happens to rankle some in the US," Martin said.
PHOTO: AP
The Canadian leader spoke after US Ambassador David Wilkins urged Canadian politicians on Tuesday to watch what they said about his country.
"Canada never has to tear the United States down to build itself up," Wilkins said, adding, "it may be smart election-year politics to thump your chest and criticize your friend and your No. 1 trading partner constantly.
"But it is a slippery slope, and all of us should hope that it doesn't have a long-term impact on the relationship," he said.
Seeking votes in western Canada, Martin said he would continue to speak his mind, especially where Canadian interests are concerned.
"The American ambassador is a man for whom I have a great deal of respect, but that does not change a vital point. When it comes to defending Canadian values, when it comes to standing up for Canadian interests, I'm going to call it like I see it," Martin said on Wednesday.
Wilkins, meanwhile, stressed that he had not been seeking to interfere in Canada's election.
"What I said yesterday was not in any way intended to affect an election. That's obviously Canada's business and Canadians will make that decision in January," he said.
Relations between the two neighbors chilled after Canada declined to support the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. A poll in Canada last month found 38 percent of respondents thought US President George W. Bush was the world's most dangerous figure.
However, other issues have tarnished US-Canadian relations, including a spat over Canadian softwood lumber exports and differences over environmental policies.
Martin is campaigning for re-election after his scandal-tainted Liberal Party minority government was ousted in a no-confidence vote.
LOST BATTLE: The Varroa mite, which Canberra has called the ‘most serious pest’ to face bees, would cause serious economic damage, an ecologist said Australia yesterday abandoned its fight to eradicate the destructive Varroa mite, an invasive parasite responsible for the collapse of honeybee populations across the planet. Desperate to keep Varroa out of the country, authorities have destroyed more than 14,000 infected beehives since the tiny red-brown pest was first detected north of Sydney in June last year. The government said its US$64 million eradication plan could not stop the mite from spreading, and the country’s beekeepers should now prepare to live with the incursion. “The recent spike in new detections have made it clear that the Varroa mite infestation is more widespread and has
SCIENTIFIC TREASURE: Preserved building blocks from the dawn of our solar system, the samples would help scientists better understand how the Earth and life formed NASA’s first asteroid samples fetched from deep space on Sunday parachuted into the Utah desert to cap a seven-year journey. In a flyby of Earth, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the sample capsule from 100,000km out. The small capsule landed four hours later on a remote expanse of military land, as the ship set off after another asteroid. “We have touchdown,” mission recovery operations announced, immediately repeating the news since the landing occurred three minutes early. Officials later said the orange striped parachute opened four times higher than anticipated — at about 6,100m — basing it on the deceleration rate. To everyone’s relief, the
COP28 AGENDA: Beijing’s climate envoy said that China was open to negotiating a global renewable energy target as long as it took economic conditions into account The complete phasing-out of fossil fuels is not realistic, China’s top climate official said on Thursday, adding that such fuels must continue to play a vital role in maintaining global energy security. Chinese Special Envoy on Climate Change Xie Zhenhua (解振華) was responding to comments by ambassadors at a forum in Beijing ahead of the UN’s COP28 climate meeting in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in November. Reporters obtained a copy of text of Xie’s speech and a video recording of the meeting. Countries are under pressure to make more ambitious climate pledges after a UN-led global “stocktake” said that 20 gigatonnes of additional
The son of jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai (黎智英) on Wednesday said that he did not want to see his father die in detention, as his lawyers raised the prospect that his long-delayed trial might be pushed back indefinitely. Sebastien Lai (黎崇恩) also said that the British government was “shameful” for its lack of action in helping his father, who is a British national. Jimmy Lai, the 75-year-old founder of Hong Kong’s now-defunct Apple Daily, has been in detention since he was arrested in 2020 under a National Security Law imposed by Beijing. The Hong Kong businessman faces up to life
RSS