Bush's first official foreign trip was to Mexico to meet with Vicente Fox. It has traditionally been to Canada but Mr. Bush felt that it was necessary to break this tradition to meet with Mexico since he is more familiar with that country. His first official foreign visit from a head of a state is this one with Jean Chretien. I'm telling you guys...I'm not sure if the press will be here but this'll be funny if they're asked questions. PM Jean Chretien is bright but as socially adept as a computer hacker, and well I'll reserve judgment for Mr. Bush because I've got to respect your choice for a leader (here in Canada we don't get to directly vote for our PM). Anyway, Chretien's going to talk about that missile defense plan (Canada's against it) and drilling in Alaska (against that too). It's also expected that Chretien will talk to Bush about how to approach the Summit of the Americas that is happening in Quebec this spring. The lefties here in Canada want to make it into another Seattle but Quebec (the city), as we are speaking is being fortified and there will be checkpoints (a la Middle East style) to prevent protesters from protesting - that's asking for trouble. That Summit of Americas will be Bush's first official outting to a significant event and the summit will talk about extending free trade into central and south america and privatizing things that have previously been held in the public domain: i.e. electicity utilities, water, education, health care (at least in Canada), etc. It'll be interesting to see how Bush approaches the arguments against globalization at this summit although I'm hedging my bets that he'll just dodge the questions.
-GL
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