No tumbleweed at Ottawa’s Fourth of July party as ambassador emphasizes friendship despite ‘testing times’
by Marie-Danielle Smith (feat. Sarah Goldfeder)
National Post
July 4, 2018
OTTAWA — Despite whispers among Ottawa’s chattering classes of a boycott, there was no tumbleweed rolling across the lawn at the Fourth of July party hosted Wednesday night by the United States’ ambassador to Canada.
It was as though the sting of tariffs weren’t being felt on both sides of the border, and as though the North American Free Trade Agreement weren’t hanging in the balance of a relationship recently gone sour, as hundreds of influencers in summer outfits crowded the lawn, drinking mint juleps and listening to singers crooning Sweet Caroline as the sun set.
Alluding to the current trials in the Canada-U.S. relationship, Ambassador Kelly Knight Craft said, in a short-and-sweet speech, “Believe me, these are testing times. I’m going to let you in on a little bit of a secret. … This is one test that gets a lot easier with a sip of good old Kentucky bourbon.” It was as if that bourbon weren’t now being imported at extra cost because of the tariffs Canada imposed on American whiskey a few days earlier, on Canada Day.
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