Old What's His Name, the President, er I mean Prime Minister of Canada

In this past Tuesday's press briefing, Scott McClellan, the U.S. press secretary, had some difficulty remember who, exactly, is in charge North of the border. I guess we should cut him some slack; afterall, at least he didn't confuse him with French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy, calling him Jean Poutine, which is more than we can say for his President. What's his name again? Bill Clinton? And considering how much I despise Harper, it makes me happy to see that his attempts to cozy up to Bush are apparently failing miserably!

Here's an excerpt from the briefing:

Q Can you talk a little bit more about Cancun and the other side of the talks, with Canada -- border, immigration? Are those high priorities?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, this will be -- you're talking about Canada? I mean, the President had a -- first of all, had a good discussion with Prime Minister Martin {sic} yesterday. That was a call that Prime Minister Martin [sic] initiated, really to thank the President on behalf of the people of Canada for the efforts of our coalition forces, our American forces, part of the coalition, to rescue the hostages last week, including one Canadian. But I think that when you're looking at this trip, first of all, it was last year in Waco when the three leaders -- Prime Minister Martin, at the time, President Fox and President Bush -- announced a new initiative, the Security and Prosperity Partnership, among the three nations. And this is a way to build upon our efforts to really make sure that North America is more integrated and remains competitive in this global changing economy that we live in. So they're going to talk about concrete ways that we can move forward on the security and prosperity partnership. And the President looks forward to those discussions with the other two leaders. In terms of Canada, this will be the President's first meeting with Prime Minister Harper since he took office -- he had met with him briefly previously when he was the opposition leader. And each of these relationships -- the relationship with Mexico, the relationship with Canada -- is a unique relationship. We've had good relations with both countries. And the President looks forward to visiting with Prime Minister Martin [sic] and strengthening our relations. So he very much looks forward to this trip.