Bush, Visiting Canada, Aims to Smooth Ruffled Relations
President Bush on Tuesday thanked Canadians who waved a welcome to him “with all five fingers” on his first official visit to their country, but he also appeared defensive at a time when he was expected to reach out and try to repair the rift over the war in Iraq.
When Mr. Bush was asked by a Canadian reporter at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Paul Martin why public opinion polls showed the two countries drifting apart, and whether he bore any responsibility, he responded, “You know, I haven’t seen the polls you look at, and we just had a poll in our country where people decided that the foreign policy of the Bush administration ought to be – stay in place for four more years.”