The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Many respected observers subscribe to the belief that George W. Bush is perhaps the most polarizing U.S. president in history. That feeling certainly has merit. People either love Bush or hate him. A gray area appears to be nonexistent. In Canada, the number of people who have no taste for Bush greatly exceeds the number who do. That much was obvious even before this week's edition of Maclean's hit the stands. The magazine's cover story tells us that just 15 per cent of Canadians would cast a ballot for Bush if they had the chance. And fewer than a third of us like the leader of the free world. So what's our beef with Dubya? There are a few obvious answers. For one, Canada is a more liberal country than the States. We've opted for a Liberal government three elections in a row, and few realistically expect that will change in the upcoming election. By contrast, our southern neighbours have the conservative Bush and his Republicans running the show. Bush is also known to come off as cocky. Canadians, of course, are just the opposite. There's an old joke about an American visiting our country who accidentally walks on the toes of a Canadian at the airport. "Ooops... I'm sorry you stepped on my foot," says the Canadian. We're simply too polite to be cocky. Cockiness, real or imagined, doesn't sit well with us. It's obvious our discourse with the president runs deeper than those factors. Bush's historic move to invade Iraq without U.N. approval was viewed by much of the world as awfully reckless, and we were no exception. Even Canadians who absolutely disdained Jean Chretien were forced to admit he made the right call by not going along with the Bush-led war. The anti-Bush sentiment has only grown now that it appears Saddam Hussein did not possess the weapons of mass destruction Bush and many in his government were certain existed. Those alleged weapons, of course, were a key reason given for the ousting of Saddam. Critics who had previously thought of Bush as a carefree dolt now have a new unflattering label for the president: liar. It's clear a Bush government would never succeed or even have the chance to succeed in Canada. At home in the States where it matters, however, the president is still considered unbeatable in many circles. But that's not to say Bush doesn't have problems. His approval rating recently sank to an all-time low of 49 per cent. One poll even had bland John Kerry, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, turning Dubya into a one-term wonder like his father. Is Bush too conservative? Is he overly cocky? Was he reckless and knowingly dishonest about Iraq? American voters will be the ones to decide this November.
