A critical point that we will face with America, and I think the elephant in the room that we don't mention in polite society is the prospect of the election of an individual who of course has demonstrated a reluctance to accept anything in terms of the special relationship with Canada. Once again, of course, the political nature of speculation in the United States is anyone's game.

The problem we face, though, is that over time we have had an erosion of the foundation of what we've always identified as a special relationship. This relationship, of course, politically, is important. The various meetings that the presidents and prime ministers have had historically set the tenet of that, but it's the ability to work together at the bureaucratic level that really has been the essence of why the Americans have tended to sort of see us as something different, rather than a foreign entity.

The difficulties we've had in being able to ensure that our military is updated to the standards that the Americans would like mean that becomes more problematic. It doesn't disappear. We still have very good interpersonal relations, but the special relationship gets eroded by this lack of day-to-day engagement, and it goes beyond military. It goes to economics; it goes to social policy, and so forth.

I fear that the development of the political direction that the Americans may be going in, following, of course, the November elections—but even more problematic, the presidential election—may in fact create a situation in which I guess the best phrase would be we'll be swimming upstream the whole time, ensuring that the Americans under that administration know it is in their interest to ensure good relationships. Those are the types of steps we need to be taking today, so should that election outcome occur, we are prepared for it.

I think that's one of the politically most difficult positions for us to be thinking about today.

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