"I was a Liberal attack ad"

Here, Patrick Basham, author of the infamous Washington Times commentary that has formed a large part of Liberal attacks on Stephen Harper, weighs in on how playing to crass domestic political prejudices often ends up backfiring in the longer term:

Charles Doran, director of Canadian studies at Johns Hopkins University, observes that Canada does foreign policy on the cheap. Canada has been free-riding on the American taxpayer for defence and security for 60 years. This free-rider status is starting to grate on American policymakers.

Thanks to the Chretien and Martin governments, Canadians' valid complaint that Americans do not know or think about Canada may no longer apply. America's political class is belatedly waking up to the fact that their Canadian neighbours are trash-talking them on a regular basis.

The new attack ads are getting lots of attention south of the border. In warning Canadians off Mr. Harper because Mr. Bush may like him, the Liberals perversely surmise that U.S.-Canada relations are better served if the American president dislikes the Canadian prime minister.

When the New York Times and the Washington Post, both pillars of the liberal media establishment, take notice of how anti-American Canadian politics has become, you've touched a political nerve. But it's not an achievement worth boasting about.

Instead, Canadians need to get over themselves. They need to accept the asymmetry of the U.S.-Canada relationship, one deeply beneficial to both countries.

Rewarding their political leaders' anti-American prejudices is an immature response. A mature electorate, with the worldliness and self-confidence that Laurier foresaw, would appreciate that anti-Americanism is really anti-Canadian, for it hurts Canada most of all.

Also on the subject of anti-Americanism is this piece from the magazine Foregn Policy. The executive summary reads as follows:

The rest of the world complains that American hegemony is reckless, arrogant, and insensitive. Just don’t expect them to do anything about it. The world’s guilty secret is that it enjoys the security and stability the United States provides. The world won’t admit it, but they will miss the American empire when it’s gone.

I couldn't agree more.