Remember back when Jean Chretien lectured the Americans on the benefits of running surpluses? Remember how upset everyone got? Remember how everyone said it would be different once Paulie took over?

Well it is.

Our Prime Minister has gone from lecturing the US in areas where Canada excels, to lecturing the US in areas where we’re failing miserably. And, not surprisingly, the Americans aren’t very happy about it.

For those who are new to this story, Martin took the podium at the climate change conference and blasted the Americans for not signing the Kyoto accord. Here’s the funny thing – even though we’ve signed the Kyoto accord, the US has done a better job at Greenhouse gas reduction than we have. So, I presume, Martin was urging the US to:

1. Sign Kyoto
2. Ignore it
3. Fly across the country in a gas guzzling jet, in order to get a photo op with Bill Clinton

Oh, and as an added bonus, comes the news that it was McKenna who requested the meeting and that the Americans claim it was very constructive. Now, I can’t possibly think of a reason why the Liberals would try to make it seem like they’re at odds with George Bush, and I can’t possibly imagine that a Liberal would leak something, so this whole added wrinkle is quite perplexing. I also know that Frank McKenna takes his job as ambassador very seriously and doesn’t consider it a stepping stone to the Liberal leadership, so he would never engage in a cheap partisan stunt like this.

So you can see how I’m perplexed by this whole thing.