FOR THE U.S., NEIGHBORLY RANCOR, NORTH AND SOUTH

TORONTO, Nov. 27 - When a senior aide to Prime Minister Jean Chretien
called President Bush a "moron" in a recent private conversation overheard
by a reporter, she might have been voicing the frustrations of Canadians
who tend to see their dominant southern neighbor as a place where profits
come before health care and guns before safety.

Those frustrations appeared to bubble over this week with what might
otherwise have been a childish indiscretion by the aide, Mr. Chretien's
communications director, Francoise Ducros, who resigned on Tuesday.

Her remark opened the door to a flurry of journalistic soul-searching about
the state of Canada's most important foreign relationship - one that
especially concerns most Canadians who live near the American border and
depend on trade with the United States.

The two countries are at loggerheads over a series of issues ranging from
American tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber to American complaints about
Canadian softness on drugs, especially marijuana, to Canada's willingness
to trade and have normal relations with Cuba.

"Canadians feel at the moment that the United States is bullying Canada on
a number of minor economic issues," said John Ferris, a history professor
at the University of Calgary. Yet, saying the current strain was not
unusual, he added, "I can't remember a single American president in my
lifetime who educated Canadians didn't think was a bumpkin."

By and large, beneath the friction, he said, Canadians tend to "see
Americans as friends and believe the norm in our relationship should be
good relations."

The stresses are a constant, just as sparks are a habitual ingredient in
relations between the United States and its other neighbor, Mexico.

Both Mexicans and Canadians are constantly reminded that the United States
has enormous power over their economies by virtue of its size and wealth,
and neither country likes feeling dependent. Just as Mexicans are offended
by the way their compatriots are sometimes treated in the United States,
Canadians do not like to be taken for granted as a lightweight ally when
Washington decides on a major foreign policy initiative.

Canadians were miffed immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks when Mr. Bush
listed several allies who had pledged support but did not mention Canada
after this country sheltered thousands of American travelers who could not
fly home that day.

When Canada sent troops to Afghanistan and an American fighter jet dropped
a bomb on Canadian troops in April by mistake, killing four, Canadians were
outraged that it took Mr. Bush two days to offer a public apology.

More recently, Canadian officials have criticized American treatment at the
border of some Canadian citizens born in in the Middle East.

The frictions that go along with a tightening border, the longest
demilitarized frontier in the world, were underscored last month when a
Canadian was arrested and jailed for filling up at a gasoline station a few
yards inside the Maine border without first registering with United States
Customs. He was charged with carrying a shotgun in his trunk.

Much has also been made in the Canadian media about how Mr. Bush has never
invited Mr. Chretien to his Texas ranch. The two leaders have a frosty
personal relationship, especially compared with the easy rapport Mr.
Chretien had with President Clinton, who shared his passion for golf and
quick-witted banter.

Now Mr. Chretien has reportedly been nicknamed "Dino," for dinosaur, by
some in the White House.

So how bad are relations between the United States and its neighbors? They
could be better, but they are not so bad when compared with the past.

Canadian troops fought in combat under American commanders in Afghanistan
for the first time since the Korean War, and Canada has stated it would be
willing to contribute troops for an invasion of Iraq as long as it is
approved by the United Nations. American and Canadian law enforcement and
intelligence agencies are working closer since the Sept. 11 attacks than
they have in many years, officials here say.

"The relationship between Canada and the United States is greater than a
slip of the tongue," said Paul Frazer, a former Canadian ambassador to
Czechoslovakia who worked in the Canadian Embassy in Washington between
1994 and 2000.

Still, the Ducros comment is a reminder of the historical frictions, which
were particularly numerous during the cold war. Canada was slow to back
President Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. Relations frayed
during the Vietnam War, when Canada opposed United States policy and
welcomed draft evaders with open arms.

Perhaps relations between the United States and its two neighbors seem so
fractious now because there were rising expectations in recent years that
they had improved to a new harmony.

Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, a conservative, hit it off famously
with President Reagan and the first President Bush, and agreed to the Nafta
free trade agreement. That agreement also brought the United States-Mexican
relationship to new heights, and the election of President Vicente Fox two
years ago was supposed to augur firmer ties and better treatment for the
three million to four million Mexicans who live illegally north of the border.

Then came Sept. 11, and Mexico as well as Canada became policy issues
destined for the back burner. As Secretary of State Colin L. Powell left
Mexico after a two-day visit Tuesday that accomplished little except gain a
joint communique calling on Saddam Hussein to disarm, the Mexican leftist
newspaper La Jornada commented in an editorial, "The representatives of our
country ceded everything and got nothing in return."