Here he reflects on the close, though now strained, relationship his country has with the US.

Canada's relationship with the United States is like no other bilateral relationship in the world.

We grow up learning that we share the world's longest undefended border. Our economy is cemented to theirs. We are each other's largest trading partners.

We are inundated with their culture, since we have unfettered access to all their television networks, movies, magazines, and books.

Since a short war in 1812, we have been military allies. Our troops fought together in the World War 1, World War 2, and Korea.

Canadians were in the first Gulf War and the war in Yugoslavia.

On 11 September, 2001, the bonds of friendship were never stronger.

As American airspace was closed to all traffic, US planes flying home were diverted to Canada.

For several days, thousands of American passengers were cared for by Canadians, many of them in very small communities on our east coast.

War on terror

When US President George W Bush sent troops to fight terrorism in Afghanistan, Canadian troops went as well.

Four Canadians were killed in a "friendly fire" episode - the first Canadian combat deaths in 50 years.

But when George W Bush went to war this year with Saddam Hussein, Canada stayed out of the fighting.

The government said it wanted United Nations approval of any war, and it was opposed to war if the only goal was regime change.

The Prime Minister's press secretary was overheard calling the American President a "moron". A government member of parliament said she hated Americans and called them "bastards".

George W Bush cancelled a planned visit to the Canadian capital, Ottawa.

So right now, relations between our two governments are strained, to say the least.

Most Canadians recognise that we derive enormous benefit from living in peace beside the US.

Still, part of the Canadian character is to be hyper-sensitive about what our proximity means for our sovereignty.

As former prime minister Pierre Trudeau once said to Americans: "Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant.

"No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."