I just read this in my Netscape news:

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien is worried by what he sees as a confrontational and isolationist tone by the new U.S. administration and is getting ready to adopt a harder line with Washington if necessary, political sources said on Thursday.

Members of Chretien's ruling Liberal Party said the prime minister had taken the unusual step of expressing concern about relations with the United States -- which is by far Canada's most important ally and trading partner -- at a weekly meeting of legislators on Wednesday.

"They're getting tougher to deal with...and we're going to have to examine getting tough with them," one person in the room quoted Chretien as saying.

Canada's usually trouble-free relations with the United States have deteriorated steadily since President Bush took power, at least in part because Ottawa gave clear signs that it preferred Democrat Al Gore in last November's U.S. election.

The two countries are now mired in an ugly dispute over Canadian softwood lumber exports, which could escalate into a crippling trade war.

Canada, under U.S. pressure to agree to a controversial missile defense plan, is also angry that Washington abandoned the Kyoto climate change accord last week on the grounds it could damage the U.S. economy.

"Chretien definitely signaled a shift in attitude after a series of increasing problems. It was not a declaration of war on the United States but he said 'Look, things aren't going well'," said another Liberal source.

Chretien, by far the most experienced leader in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, expressed dismay at the Bush administration's tougher approach on sensitive issues such as Russia, China, North Korea and the Middle East peace process.

"(Chretien said) 'Bush has got his problems, he's got problems with China, he's got problems with I don't know who else. They're becoming more inward-looking, protectionist'," said one legislator.

Chretien -- who will meet Bush at an April 20-22 summit of Western Hemisphere leaders in Quebec -- did not specify how he might crack down on Washington.

His options would appear to be limited, especially as he ruled out linking the lumber dispute to Canada's profitable energy exports to the United States.

"All the signs are that this is a problematic relationship so it may partly become a matter of Canada bunkering down," said David Rudd, executive director of the Canadian Institute

of Strategic Studies.

"But it would not be responsible if we just sat back and took it (the U.S. stance) on lumber, missile defense or the environment," he told Reuters.

The prime minister's frank words could also create tensions with new Foreign Minister John Manley, whose overriding priority is to strengthen ties with Washington.

But sentiment within the Liberal party does appear to have hardened, with several members of Parliament openly admitting concern about the Bush administration.

"The Americans are becoming very arrogant. The expression goes 'It's either my way or the highway'...that's the American way," Liberal legislator Sarkis Assadourian told Reuters.

The legislators say Chretien is particularly vexed by the U.S. lumber industry's hard-line approach on the softwood issue, which he feels violates the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

U.S. lumber producers, who allege Canada is unfairly subsidizing its timber industry, asked the U.S. Commerce Department this week to impose stiff countervailing and anti-dumping duties on Canadian lumber imports.

Stephen Clarkson, a professor of political economy at the University of Toronto, who is currently a fellow at Washington's Woodrow Wilson Center, said Canada's options for getting tough with the United States are limited.

"(But) Canada can be firmer than it has been in the past and not give into U.S. violations of NAFTA. We could take them to the World Trade Organization (over lumber) and probably win," he said.

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We only have a little less than 4 years left. Then he's got to go!

Love for all of you, not Bush.., annamill