Straws, see me grasp!

Opposition critics led by the lamentable Paul Dewar of Ottawa Centre is trying to twist a 30 year old tradition into an imagined slight against Stephen Harper and Canada. And politicians wonder why the public tunes them out...

OTTAWA–The fact Barack Obama is meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon before Prime Minister Stephen Harper smacks of political payback for the Conservative government interfering in the U.S. Democratic primaries, critics say.

"I guess it shows what happens when you interfere in someone else's affairs," NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar, the MP for Ottawa Centre, said yesterday.

It's too bad their ignorance, partisanship, and their hatred for Stephen Harper so completely blinds them of the facts. You also have to wonder why the mainstream media are looking to spin this into a story. Actually, no you don't have to wonder.

It is tradition, I say again, tradition for the incoming American President's first visit with a foreign leader to be the President of Mexico.

Obama's transition team described the meeting with Calderon as part of a nearly three-decade tradition of new U.S. presidents meeting Mexico's leader before inauguration, Reuters reported.

And to further embarrass Paul Dewar and other brain dead "critics" pontificating over this imagined slight, Obama's first foreign visit will be to Canada, restoring the tradition that George W. Bush broke when he decided to visit Mexico instead of Canada under Jean Chretien as his first foreign visit.

U.S. president-elect Barack Obama will visit Canada for his first foreign visit after his inauguration later this month.

"We're honoured and thrilled he has chosen Canada," Peter Kent, Canada's minister of state for foreign affairs of the Americas, said.

The planned trip will continue a longstanding tradition of new American presidents choosing Canada for their first official state visit.

The tradition was broken by President George Bush after his election when he visited Mexico instead.

Now this news bodes well for Canada. Our economies are closely linked, and we are brothers-in-arms in the global war on terror. You can bet your last dollar that trade, economy, and Afghanistan will be top of the agenda when they meet.

I wonder when we can expect a retraction from Paul Dewar and Jack Layton?