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Pat Buchanan called Canada a freeloading nation. As a Canadian I say: HE IS RIGHT. What do YOU think? <<Buchanan calls Canada 'freeloading nation' Canadian Press Toronto — Canada is a "whining" country that has been "freeloading" off the U.S. defence budget for decades, outspoken American talk-show host Pat Buchanan said Friday. The latest attack to come from the failed Republican presidential candidate followed his televised comment that Canada is a "Soviet Canuckistan" because Canadian officials objected to a U.S. law demanding photos and fingerprints from Arab-Canadian visitors to the country. "Post 9-11, we've been making a tremendous effort to try to secure the American people," Buchanan said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., where he co-hosts a daily talk show. "And to hear this kind of carping criticism from north of the border, from folks whom we give a $50-billion (U.S.) trade surplus each year and whom we defend while they have been in some ways freeloading off the United States, got a little bit into my craw." "We exercise occasionally the right to criticize [Canada] and what I hear from up in Canada is some juvenile whining." On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham issued a warning to Canadians born in Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Syria highlighting a U.S. law that targets foreign visitors originally from those countries. Two days later, however, Mr. Graham said U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci had assured him that everyone carrying Canadian passports will receive identical treatment at border crossings, no matter where they were born. While Mr. Buchanan called Canada a "safe haven for terrorists" and said Prime Minister Jean Chrétien had done an "appalling" job of securing the country's borders, he also said U.S. President George W. Bush has not done enough to counteract terrorism in his own backyard. If Canadians don't want to visit the U.S. because they object to being fingerprinted and photographed, that's their prerogative, Mr. Buchanan said. "As it's their prerogative to criticize this country and ours to do likewise." Mr. Buchanan's comments were first aired on the MSNBC show Buchanan and Press on Thursday. Almost half a million people tune in for two hours daily to watch Mr. Buchanan, a notoriously conservative former Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon speechwriter, face off with the more liberal Bill Press. Despite Mr. Buchanan's wide audience, his comments don't represent the way most Americans think, said Maude Barlow, spokeswoman for the Council of Canadians. "[His comments aren't] fair to most Americans because most Americans don't think the way Pat Buchanan does," Ms. Barlow said from Ottawa. "But if you don't know anything about Canada and this is all you're seeing, it can spread a pretty viscous lie." "He's using Canada as an excuse here to whip up racist sentiment in the Untied States, but what people need to start talking about right now is how to get along." This week wasn't the first time Mr. Buchanan has given Canada a verbal lashing. In 1990, Mr. Buchanan wrote that if Canada shattered following the failure of the Meech Lake constitutional accord, "America would pick up the pieces." Two years later, he said: "For most Americans, Canada is sort of like a case of latent arthritis. We really don't think about it, unless it acts up." >> | ||||||||||||
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