THE PROTESTS - A GIGANTIC JOINT AND NEWLYWEDS

Fortified by a few tokes on a 25-gram joint, Canada's self-proclaimed
"prince of pot" will be there, hoping that George W. Bush will catch a
whiff and turn his attention to protesters who want the U.S. to keep
its nose out of Canada's marijuana laws.

Some of the country's gay newlyweds are showing up too, bringing their
own dose of northern chill to Mr. Bush's first official visit to Ottawa.

As the Bush motorcade rolls on to Parliament Hill Tuesday morning, the
thousands of anticipated protesters will include those seeking to
emphasize the deep divide in social policy between Canada and the U.S.
in the last couple of years on hot-button social issues like marijuana
and gay marriage.

"I think it matters in Canada because whatever happens in the U.S.
creates pressures on social policy issues that we've won," said
Toronto gay activist Michelle Robidoux, who is making the trip on a
protest bus.

Marc Emery, equipped with a 25-gram, 32.5-centimetre-long marijuana
joint that he says will be enough for 150 people "to have a big hit
on," hopes the American media will notice him even if Mr. Bush doesn't.

"There's a lot of money being lined up behind prohibition and the
biggest impetus for that comes from the Bush administration which is
much more ideologically determined to keep marijuana out of the
mainstream that Canadians typically are," said Mr. Emery, head of the
B.C. Marijuana Party and a self-described "prince of pot."

"We want to remind Americans that the Bush agenda is not our agenda in
Canada."

While Mr. Bush and Prime Minister Paul Martin are expected to avoid
the two high-profile irritants when they meet in private, the public
sideshow will still draw attention to fault lines in Canada-U.S. relations.

While Canada is moving toward legalizing gay marriage, Mr. Bush wants
to entrench a ban in the U.S. Constitution. As Parliament debates a
bill to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, the
U.S. has lobbied for a crackdown and warned that relaxed laws will tie
up the already strained borders.

"It is not surprising there are going to be protests against his
position but this is not something Bush is preoccupied with right
now," said Donald Abelson, a specialist in Canadian-American
relations. "He's got bigger fish to fry."

Gay rights and pot will take a back seat to the president's efforts to
drum up support for national missile defence and reinforcing border
security, Mr. Abelson said.

"These are the issues that will be on the agenda and they are going to
be far more important than social policy," Mr. Abelson said. "He's not
going to sit down and have an informed debate with Paul Martin about
the virtues of marijuana usage, it's just not going to happen."