Is Canada's Biggest Problem America?

That's the question asked in this week's issue of Canada's weekly news magazine, Macleans. In their piece "Canada’s biggest problem? America", writer Luiza Ch. Savage runs through a list of issues rankling the Canadians, including: increased security along the world's longest de-militarized border, growing protectionism in trade agreements (especially "buy American" clauses in government contracts), and restrictions on Canadian airlines operating charter flights within the United States (which threatened to disrupt the National Hockey League season).

Canada thought that the “special relationship” between our two countries suffered under George W. Bush, as his presidency was consumed more and more by the War on Terror. Prime Minister Stephen Harper hoped things would improve under Obama, but so far his government hasn’t seen much of a change in key policies.

Some political analysts cited in the Macleans piece say issues like increased border security obscure the deep nature of the relationship between the two countries including being each other’s largest trading partners. Still, it seems like our neighbors (or neighbours) to the north aren’t too happy with us these days.