OTTAWA - Two decades ago the leaders of Canada and the United States, Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan, had such a good personal relationship that they once sang together on stage.

Today, President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Jean Chretien are barely on speaking terms.

Improving the sour state of ties between the world's two largest trading partners is therefore a priority for Paul Martin, who takes over as Canadian Prime Minister from Chretien on Friday (December 12).

"This an area where we have a great deal to do, where we want to be far more sophisticated in our relations than has been the case in the past," he told reporters last month.

Chretien - whose spokeswoman quit last year after calling Bush "a moron" - angered the US leader by refusing to back the Iraq war and by not reprimanding politicians from his ruling Liberal party who criticized the president.

The partners are also at odds over Canadian Internet pharmacies selling cheap drugs to Americans, Ottawa's plan to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, terms for softwood lumber exports and the case of a Canadian who was deported to Syria by US agents.

And much as Martin wants to reinvigorate the relationship with Canada's greatest ally, he also knows one of the unspoken rules of Canadian politics: voters do not like leaders who seem to be currying favour with the Americans.

Mulroney, for example, was pilloried at home after singing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" with Reagan after a 1985 summit.

In tune with Reagan

"This public display of sucking up to Reagan may have been the single most demeaning moment in the entire political history of Canada's relations with the United States," wrote noted Canadian historian Jack Granatstein.

The left-leaning Chretien, on the other hand, seemed almost proud of his differences with Bush. But critics in the business community - some of whom urged Ottawa to send troops to Iraq - worried that antagonism at the top could harm Canada's economic ties with the United States.

Canada sends 85 per cent of its exports to the United States, and trade with its neighbour comprises around 34 per cent of overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Bilateral trade is worth more than US$1 billion a day.

Dr Maureen Molot, professor of international affairs at Ottawa's Carleton University, said Martin needed to explain the importance of ties with the United States to Canadians, as well as acknowledging the price to be paid for living next to an economic powerhouse.

"You can't be dependent on a relationship for 85 per cent of your trade and (34 percent) of GDP and somehow or other separate that from the issues that are important to that critical partner," she said.

Talk of accommodating Washington sits uneasily with critics who say Canada has already gone too far by tightening its security laws in the wake of the September 11, 2001, suicide attacks.

Risk to sovereignty

Former Liberal foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy said Canada risked gradually losing its sovereignty.

"There is I think quite a powerful movement in this country ...which really is prepared to subsume our foreign policy and security interests on what it considers to be the altar of economic guarantees," he said.

"Nobody is saying you toss over your US relations, of course you don't. But it doesn't mean to say you have to become slavishly connected like some kind of tar baby with them."

Martin says he plans to set up a special cabinet committee on Canada-US relations that he will chair.

He also wants to make better use of Canadian diplomats in the United States to establish good relations with individual members of Congress. He has offered the key job of ambassador to Washington to Finance Minister John Manley, an appointment that could go down well in Washington.

Manley, who says he will quit as finance minister and deputy prime minister when Martin takes over, has built up very friendly ties with his US counterparts. He has said only that he is weighing several job offers.

Molot said Canada had lost influence in the United States by failing to realize the centres of power had moved south.

"The old generations of American leaders who were familiar with Canada are not around any more ...You've got to persuade Americans that Canada is important to them," she said.

Quite how much attention the United States will pay to these efforts is unclear, and one Martin aide acknowledged that Canada rarely makes it onto Washington's radar screens.

"During the five minutes a year that the Americans spend thinking about Canada, we want them to have good thoughts rather than bad thoughts," the aide said.

(Agencies via Xinhua)