closest Ally ?????

[alik01]

``To have our closest ally, Canada, with these resources available, with a natural market in the United States, it's a huge contributor to energy security,'' John Snow, US Treasury Secretary said July 8 after visiting Fort McMurray, The oils sands region of Alberta, 466 miles Northeast of Calgary.

I thought UK was their closest ally. Thats what Bush said.

Welcome to energy Politics.:eek

 

[spmarshall]

Well, geographically, we are the closest ally to the US.

To those who may say "what about Mexico?" - remember Ottawa is closer to Washington than Mexico City, or any other capital.

As well, we've got big oil and gas pipelines to the US. Mexico and the UK do not.

 

[Fighting Madd]

Well, we are the US's largest trading partner, their geographic neighbour, co-members of NORAD, NATO and both members of ASEAN.

 

[GeekyBoyTO]

Didn't see them acknowledge these facts right after the start of hostilities with Iraq...interesting.

GB

 

[adma]

 

[1Voltaire1]

To those who may say "what about Mexico?" - remember Ottawa is closer to Washington than Mexico City, or any other capital.

The demographic shift in the U.S. is to the South and the West. Washington may be closer to Ottawa than Mexico City but the people who vote politicians into the House of Representatives are increasingly not. Also, the Hispanic constituency, of which a substantial percentage are Mexican, is large, powerful and growing - if I recollect correctly, I think George Bush's first official trip was to Mexico.

As well, we've got big oil and gas pipelines to the US. Mexico and the UK do not.

Fine, but the U.S. has relatively unfettered access to those oil and gas pipelines. Consequently, I think the phrase "you don't know what you've got until you lose it" applies here. I say this because, John Snow's comments notwithstanding, most Americans don't really appreciate - understand - the extent to which Canada supplies energy to their market (if we can delinate markets that clearly).

Also, there is a danger in the large energy supplier = strong/good/best ally equation. I'm not saying Canada isn't an ally of the U.S. I'm just saying if energy supply is the major factor in determining who are your best allies, then Saudi Arabia is one of the United States' best allies. While Saudi Arabia is an ally of necessity for the U.S., I, for one, would question how much of an ally Saudi Arabia really is, irrespective of how much energy they supply for U.S. markets.

 

[unimaginative2]

Of course they're going to play to the gallery when they're up here. Really, though, I've always found it absurd that the Americans put on TV ads in Middle Eastern countries talking about how wonderful the States is. Clearly, the potential suicide bomber target market isn't going to change its mind because of a TV ad. If they took out these ads in Canada, however, saying "Rah rah, we care about you Canada," it would likely be extremely effective. Canadians would just like to be noticed.

Fighting Madd: Are you sure you don't mean APEC rather than ASEAN? You can add the OAS to that list too.

 

[samplain]

Canada is the US's closest ally to almost everything but the current military. Thats the UK.