W. in Canada

It's traditional for a new U.S. president to make his first official trip outside the U.S. to Canada. Barak Obama made his visit in the second month of his presidency.

Instead, george bush went south, making Mexico his first visit; and it wasn't until years later that he visited our great neighbor to the north.

So now it seemed a bit odd that he would choose to make his first post-president speech, where? In Canada. Well, in Calgary, which is in Canada. My friend who grew up in the wonderful city of Montreal and now lives in the paradise of Vancouver, explained to me that Calgary, in the province of Alberta, is the ultra-conservative part of Canada.

Now maybe it wasn't such an odd choice after all. Maybe he went there because no one else invited him.

Here are some comments on his visit from Canadians themselves:

"While Canadians are generally thought of as peace loving, polite and hospitable, following Bush's first speech since leaving the White House 56 days ago, several people went home without shoes. An Iraqi tradition to demonstrate utter contempt now appears to be adopted in Canada."

"I am glad that former U.S. president George W. Bush has not lost his flair for unintentionally hilarious and absurd one-liners ('Risk-Takers' Will Fix Economy, Bush Says In Calgary - March 18). His latest belief that "it's the risk-takers, not the government, that is going to pull us out of this recession" made me laugh."

Calgary -- "George W. Bush hurts the Calgary image? Quite the contrary.
"There's no more appropriate place for a Bush speaking engagement than Calgary (There He Was, In Perhaps The Only City In Canada That Would Have Him - March 18). For starters, you need to understand that when you live in Calgary, you may as well be living in Texas. Really, we're more Texan than the Texans."

"I would go so far as to suggest that Mr. Bush actually embodies the values that many Calgarians hold. There's a shared sense of entitlement. Somebody has something you want? Grab it. Economic considerations have priority over environmental or social considerations. Faith and patriotism trump reason. Government should be absolutely minimal, yet accountability of government to its citizens is unnecessary, regardless of competency."

As my friend says, Calgary, Alberta is the "republican" part of an otherwise wonderful country.

Ralph