Usually the strategy of the continentalists is to say that to be relevant at the world level, we should be relevant in Washington. How can we be relevant in Washington? It's by giving the Americans what they want. That strategy was used by countries such as Australia, for example, to say, okay, we should prove to the Americans that we are a super ally, that we are behind them, that we're supporting them. In a certain way that strategy was used by the early Martin government in 2004-05, saying that we should really show the Americans that we support them, and we can then move on other issues, the deepening of North American integration, trade issues, and so on. But it never worked as we can't expect the Americans to pay attentions to what Ottawa is doing by building an American strategy in Ottawa, except when they ask for it. The risk for Canada is giving the Americans things that they don't need. The Australians did that. They changed some of their regulations, tried to show how strong they were in the anti-terrorist war. No one has paid attention to that in Washington, so they didn't receive the benefits of such an attitude.
On April 29th, 2014. See this statement in context.