Now, in fairness though I’ve got to say that Canada’s interests here are a little bit different. And particularly, I might as well be frank, particularly in light of the…of the interim decision at least on Keystone. …. Our energy [issue] is the necessity of diversifying our energy export markets. We can not be, as a country, in a situation where really our one energy partner could say no to our energy products. …. when it comes to oil in particular, we do face a significant discount on the marketplace because of the fact that we’re a captive supplier. We have made it clear to the people of Canada, one of our national priorities is to make sure that we have the infrastructure and the capacity to export our energy products outside of North America.

– Canadian PM Stephen Harper

One of Barack Obama’s most obnoxious and arrogant campaign promises was his pledge to “restore America’s image throughout the rest of the world.” Well, it appears I’ll have to eat crow on this one. President Barack Obama has totally turned back the clock on how America is viewed abroad. This is particularly true with respect to Mexico and Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper brims with great frustration at how he has been treated by our current US President. It’s almost as if someone has hit a “Reset” Button back to the Jolly Old Days of The Oregon Boundary Dispute.

During the Election of 1844, a Democratic Party Presidential candidate, James Knox Polk, decided he would run as an expansionist candidate. He was locked in a dispute with the British Government over who would control how much of the Oregon Territory. He staked out a position in favor of “Manifest Destiny” and his supporters demanded that US territory include “All Oregon” with the boundary at “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight.” He later only accepted a border at Forty-Nine North because he was too busy fighting with Mexicans over Texas.

Now this probably wasn’t the US image that Barack Obama chose to restore when he made his grandiose and hateful apology for most of America’s history during a 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt. Instead, America with Barack Obama as President is once again an evil, greedy, conniving neighbor that dominates others and connives to work against the interests of anyone unfortunate enough to share the same hemisphere.

A little known fact about NAFTA (never mentioned amongst our mordant fears of Mexican trucks on American highways) involves the fact that US gets a major price break on petroleum products from Canada under the deal. In return for their loyalty and consideration, Barack Obama has gotten on the phones and lobbied Democratic Party Senators to block the Keystone XL Pipeline. Canadian Prime Minister Harper seems prepared to terminate the US “Good Neighbor Discount.”

Energy has become a searing rift between the U.S. and Canada and threatens to leave the U.S. without its top energy supplier. The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Obama the U.S. will have to pay market prices for its Canadian oil after Obama’s de facto veto of the Keystone XL pipeline. Canada is preparing to sell its oil to China. Until now, NAFTA had shielded the U.S. from having to pay global prices for Canadian oil. That’s about to change.

So that $4 gas you were whinnying about, don’t worry. Relax. President Obama may have just totally taken care of that one for us. I can’t wait to log into GasBuddy.com and check out all the hope and change that erupts when Canada starts charging us the same price on crude that we get from The Saudis.

Barack Obama inherited a situation where the world’s 3rd largest petroleum producer was giving the American motorist the home town discount. All we had to do was build them a decent pipeline to Texas in an expeditious manner. Our new image in the eyes of the world is that we couldn’t be trusted to hold up our end on one of the best trade deals we’ve ever been given in our nation’s history. Good God, I hope this error ends in January 2013.