[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 138 (Tuesday, December 7, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11886-S11887]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                RECENT VISIT TO CANADA BY PRESIDENT BUSH

  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I commend President Bush on his recent trip 
to Canada and efforts to build on our strong relations with our 
neighbor to the north. Canada is our Nation's largest trading partner 
and one of our closest allies, and this relationship must continue to 
remain vibrant and strong. As the co-chairman of the Canada-U.S. 
Interparliamentary Group, I continue to work with my peers in Canada to 
do what I can to assist in this effort.
  Despite certain media coverage to the contrary, many Canadians warmly 
embrace Americans and the President's policies. I want to share 
comments made by Senator Jerry Grafstein in the Canadian Senate on the 
occasion of President Bush's visit. I ask unanimous consent that they 
be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               ``Manifest Democracy''--The Bush Doctrine

       Honourable senators, today President Bush visits Canada. We 
     welcome President Bush, his wife and his senior advisers to 
     our nation's capital. As Co-chair of the Canada-U.S. 
     Interparliamentary Group, now the largest interparliamentary 
     group in Parliament, it is my hope that Canada will actively 
     engage President Bush and the Bush doctrine, which I call 
     ``Manifest Democracy.''
       Senators will recall that, in 1947 the then Minister of 
     External Affairs, Louis St. Laurent, in Toronto defined the 
     principles and practices of Canada's foreign policy based on 
     these words: ``freedom, liberty and democracy.'' Mr. St. 
     Laurent and his then Deputy Minister, Mr. Pearson, were not 
     confused by political debate or shifting political opinion 
     within or outside Canada when it came to Canada's strategic 
     interests.
       In 1947, the UN was gridlocked. It was Mr. St. Laurent who 
     convinced a reluctant Mr. King that Canada should take the 
     lead in constructing and joining a transatlantic coalition of 
     democracies to enhance our collective security called NATO. 
     Mr. St. Laurent had learned well from the lessons of 
     history--the sad experience of the League of Nations and the 
     causes of World War II. Mr. St. Laurent believed in the 
     democratic dialectic. Both Mr. St. Laurent and Mr. Pearson

[[Page S11887]]

     were not confused. They understood that democracies did not 
     make war with democracies.
       Before the shock of 9/11, it seemed the 21st century voices 
     for a democratic dialectic were muted. The origins of the 
     Helsinki Process were forgotten. It was the Helsinki Process, 
     in 1974, that laid the groundwork for democratic change in 
     Europe. The Berlin Wall collapsed following the popular 
     democratic movement of Solidarity in Poland and the 
     ``Velvet'' revolution in the Czech Republic. The drive toward 
     human rights and expanding democracies slowed at the turn of 
     the century. Yet, the appetite for democracy once tasted 
     cannot be easily satisfied. With the ``Rose'' revolution in 
     Georgia, and now the ``Orange'' revolution in Ukraine, 
     democracy is on the march again.
       The Bush doctrine of manifest democracy provoked by 
     September 11, 2001, continues to gain support by raising the 
     banner of freedom, liberty and free markets. Public sentiment 
     for democracy is rising not only in the East, in Georgia and 
     now Ukraine, but across Eurasia, in Afghanistan and seeping 
     into the dialectics of the Middle East as well as, painfully, 
     in Iraq.
       My hope is that Canada will regain its principal place as 
     an active protagonist and creative partner for democracy, 
     liberty and freedom and as a forceful agent in the spread of 
     free trade and free markets around the globe.
       Canada owns a capacious toolbox of democratic instruments 
     and best practices that can quickly and cost-efficiently be 
     deployed to help build the infrastructure of democracy--
     independent parliamentary commissions; parliamentary 
     practices, including checks and balances; separation of 
     powers; policing; independent judging and free trade 
     agreements.
       We hope that Prime Minister Martin and Canada will actively 
     re-engage with President Bush and America, as we did after 
     World War II, in a collective effort to spread democracy, 
     free trade and free markets around the world.

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