“There is an impression in Canada that Democrats would be bad for trade with Canada, and that a Republican president would be better. I think that’s complete crap.” Maryscott (Scotty) Greenwood said this during our meeting this morning at the Canadian American Business Council (www.canambusco.org). Greenwood is managing director with the law firm of McKenna Long and Aldridge, and part of her job it to help with the business council. She is also a former Clinton-appointed attachee to the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa. The Can-Am business council is there to remind American politicians and business leaders that North America — not just the U.S. — is a global economic force when the nations work together to protect and enhance their integrated economies.
One thing Greenwood is watching is the U.S. Food Safety Initiative, designed to protect the U.S. food supply. It stems from recent scares about tainted pet food from China, E. coli in spinach, and E. coli in imported beef. As the bill is currently written, food could only enter the U.S. through a crossing with an FDA inspection site. The only one along the Canada-U.S. border is at Windsor-Detroit. The bill has been introduced and assigned to committee. Let’s hope the bill gets softened or scrapped before it gets passed. If there is another food scare shortly, it could pass Congress quickly, Greenwood notes.
Before the meeting at the business council, we met with David Biette, director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. The institute coordinates all sorts of learning programs, including a mini-UN type program that brings together students from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. for mock NAFTA negotiations. I hope to get more information on this in case you know a young person who might like to go. One thing that came up in our conversation with Biette is a possible border dispute in the Beaufort Sea. There are oil reserves up there, so location of the border is significant. The U.S. wants it to go straight north from the Yukon-Alaska border. Canada wants it to angle more toward Alaska.
We had lunch today at Agraria restaurant in Georgetown. North Dakota Farmers’ Union owns the restaurant, which serves local food, free-range chicken, and wild seafood. The attractive building is right on the Potomac River within sight of the Watergate Hotel. The location sounds great, but the business isn’t doing very well. In fact, the union board brought in two new managers to turn it around. The one manager we talked to had never been to North Dakota.
At the end of the afternoon, I had time to visit one more Smithsonian Museum: National Museum of the American Indian. The museum was designed by Douglas Cardinal, a Blackfoot from Alberta who also designed the Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec. Here are some trivia questions for you, based on what I saw:
1. How many bison roamed North America in 1830? A: 50 million
2. How many bison roamed North America in 1889? A: 1,000
3. Who invented the revolver, the first gun that could shoot more than one bullet without reloading? A: Samual Colt, from Connecticut
4. Who is Rebecca Rolfe better known as? A: Pocahontas (Her father, a Powhatan from Virginia, approved the marriage of his daughter to Englishman John Rolfe in hopes that it would bring peace to his people. It did, for eight years.)
5. Mohawks from Quebec and New York are known for exceptional skill at which job? A: Highrise ironworks. (They helped build the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, and many other buildings and bridges.)
6. South and North American aboriginals introduced Europeans to four key crops, which the explorers took with them around the world. What were they? A: Corn, potatoes, tobacco and chocolate.
7. What did George Crum, an aboriginal from New York, invent in 1853? A: Potato chips
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