CANADA'S US FRIENDSHIP HITS A REEFER

THE long-standing alliance between the US and Canada, strained at best in
recent months, is officially going to pot.

Canada, which was a vocal opponent of the US war against Iraq -- resulting
in President George W. Bush cancelling today's scheduled meeting with Prime
Minister Jean Chretien because it clashed with the weekend visit by John
Howard to his Texas ranch -- is now infuriating the US with plans to
decriminalise marijuana.

"You expect your friends to stop the movement of poison to your
neighbourhood," said the Bush administration's drugs czar, John Walters,
who fears drugs will seep through the border shared by the two countries.

It is just the latest example of Canadians not doing anything right in US
eyes, from Mike Weir (a left-hander to boot) winning America's most
prestigious golf tournament, the Masters, to the suspicion by some
Americans that Canadians are spreading SARS south of the border.

And it all has the Canucks -- whose gross domestic product relies heavily
on trade with their southern neighbour -- worried.

The man who is favoured to replace the maverick Mr Chretien next year, Paul
Martin, has called for a cabinet-level committee to try to repair relations
with the US.

"Our bilateral relations must be conducted on a far more sophisticated
basis than (they have) been to date," he said.

Another leading Canadian politician, the Canadian Alliance party's Jason
Kenney, accused Mr Chretien of "mismanaging our most important bilateral
relationship".

"Relations between Canada and the US are at their lowest level in years and
there is no doubt the White House is sending a signal (in failing to
reschedule Mr Chretien's meeting with Mr Bush)."

Although there were existing tensions on trade issues, the bad blood
between the long-standing allies boiled over in the lead-up to the invasion
of Iraq. A Canadian cabinet minister said Mr Bush was "not a statesman",
senior Chretien aide Francois Ducros called the US President "a moron" and
Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish referred to the "damned Americans".

"I hate those bastards," she said.

"Those remarks did not go by unnoticed," said Thomas D'aquino, president of
the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, whose organisation worried about
the economic impact of upsetting the US.

The US ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, warned of the strain on
relations and said there was "disappointment . . . and concern" in
Washington about Ottawa's positions.

But in truth, insiders say, Mr Bush has long loathed Mr Chretien, a liberal
- -- and great friend of Bill Clinton's -- who publicly supported Al Gore in
the 2000 presidential election.

"Chretien crossed diplomatic lines in showing support for Gore," said Chris
Sands, an expert on US-Canada relations at the Centre for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington.

"Before September 11, Bush found Chretien a pain in the neck, but they were
both professional enough to keep it under control. Since 9/11, it has got
steadily worse."

Canadian firms have also noted that their telephones aren't ringing off the
hook as contracts go out to rebuild Iraq.

The SARS scare in Toronto -- where 23 people so far have died of the
respiratory disease -- hasn't helped either.

Cruise ships in the US stopped accepting Torontonians and tour buses from
Canada's biggest city were being turned away by casinos at Niagara Falls.

"If you visit Canada," Niagara Falls, New York, mayor Irene Elia told her
residents, "you should wash your hands frequently."