Mutualities

Neighbours, generally on good terms, with an invisible fence between their properties. They have had their differences of opinion, but generally make a mature effort to restrain their less neighbourly attitudes from forcing a distance between them unwarranted by mutual need and recognition. One, suffering a grievous injury, went so far as to blame his neighbour for having been too accommodating to the entity that injured it, but without true cause.

The result of which that invisible, extremely porous fence through which each had in the past flowed from one property to the other to visit and exchange pleasantries, has since been electrified with suspicion. And each neighbour, still yet accustomed to visiting with gifts and offerings in hand, has had to cool their heels before crossing the fence, while agents of one neighbour or the other, poked about at the gifts and offerings to determine their innocence and bless entry.

Fables often flow from reality. Canadian-American relations ebb and flow, from comfortable to prickly. The free flow of trade, goods and services, let alone that of curiosity and tourism has been impeded of late between the two countries. It's a fairly one-sided affair, with Americans having convinced themselves that Canada's perceived less stringent immigration procedures pose a risk to the United States, permitting the entry of those with malignant purposes.

It's understandable to a degree, as is the constant bickering over trade matters, with one side striving to discount any advantage the other might seek to mount, favouring a trade balance that the other considers unfair. If human siblings, on a micro-scale quibble constantly, little wonder that nations indulge also, on a macro-scale of inter-related relationships between two equally-endowed countries. The more populous, more prosperous of which will always have the advantage.

And now that another president has been installed in the United States, Canada is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to impress itself as a reliable and likeable neighbour. President Obama has done Canada the great favour of receiving him, in his first foreign trip in a series of such visits abroad for the purpose of introducing himself, his administration and his agenda to international partners in trade, development and an orderly world.

This will mark Canada's opportunity to make a fresh start with a new administration in Washington. Much is expected of Canada's prime minister, to himself make a good impression on the new president. They will speak primarily of trade, climate change, the global economy and their shared military policing challenges in Afghanistan. And they will speak of Canada's vast energy resources, at the service of American energy needs.

The two countries have much, though not too too too much in common. While Americans think of Canada as a pale reflection of their own society with like values and priorities reflective of their own culture and traditions, Canadians remains adamant that, while admiring much of what the United States has produced in science and entertainment and what its overall human values stand for, there is a wide separation between some values and some priorities.

What there can be no argument about, however, is that we are sufficiently alike to understand one another far better than we do; that our mutual interests bind us together in trade and commerce on a shared continent; that our contiguous border and close geographic proximity mitigate against hostility, and urge toward friendship.