CANADA-U.S. RELATIONS MAY GO TO POT

With Liberal fortunes tanking thanks to ministerial scandals and gross
financial mismanagement, the federal government is counting on the tried
and true tactic of creating diversions. The December 5 announcement that
the Navy's Sea King helicopters will be replaced was followed a week later
by comments from the justice minister that he intends to proceed with
decriminalization of marijuana possession early in the new year. Justice
Minister Martin Cauchon's comments were made in response to a December 12
House of Commons committee report.

It recommended that those caught with fewer than 30 grams of marijuana
(about one ounce) be subject to simple fines under the Contraventions Act,
rather than facing criminal prosecution. Whether the Liberals will actually
proceed with the change is unclear.

The proposal quickly rang alarm bells south of the border.

John Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, responded the following day, telling the media in Buffalo,
New York, "This is a dangerous threat to our young people, given what we
see, and it makes the problem of controlling the border more difficult."

Opposition critic for Canada- U.S. relations, Calgary MP ]ason Kenney, says
the 30-gram limit is far too much. "Marijuana is now far stronger than it
was when ministers Rock and Cauchon were smoking it in college." And he
predicts allowing such high limits for possession will "make it that much
easier for some scumbag selling pot to school-kids in Langley, B.C., to
cross the border to Bellingham and do the same there.

This is going to lead to tightening up the border.

We're tempting fate here. The border is the lifeblood of the Canadian economy."

Eighty-five percent of Canada's export trade heads to the U.S. Mr. Kenney
believes the lack of concern for the American position "just reflects who
the Liberals are. They are the 'little Canadians.' They define themselves
in negative terms.

They are 'not Americans.' If they have a chance to kick Uncle Sam in the
shins, they will do so, and damn the consequences."