Bush travels north
to repair relations
with Canadians
The president's visit with the country's prime minister
covered Iraq and the US. ban on Canadian beef
Ukrainian political opposition
protests toppled election rule
BY scon LINDLAW
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OTTAWA — President Bush tried
on Tliesday to repair U.S.-Canadian
relations strained by years of bick
ering over trade and Iraq, although
he stood by policies that have irri
tated Canadians.
He did promise Prime Minister
Paul Martin to work toward easing
a U.S. ban on Canadian beef.
Even as thousands of Canadian
protesters thronged the streets
to protest his visit, Bush brushed
aside suggestions that his deci
sions had damaged U.S.-Canadian
ties. Asked about polls that show
Canadian opposition to his poli
cies runs high, Bush pointed to
his own re-election as the survey
that mattered.
“We just had a poll in our coun
try when people decided that the
foreign policy of the Bush adminis
tration ought to stay in place for
four more years,” Bush said at a
joint news conference with Martin.
“I made some decisions, obvious
ly, that some in Canada didn’t agree
with, like, for example, removing
Saddam Hussein and enforcing the
demands of the United Nations Secu
rity Council,” Bush said.
While he acknowledged no
mistakes, Bush joked about his re
ception in Canada.
“I want to thank the Canadian
people who came out to wave, with
all five fingers, for their hospitality,”
he said.
Indeed, Canadians for the most
part lived up to their reputation for
reserve as Bush made his way from
the airport to downtown Ottawa.
Most stood waving excitedly at
Bush’s enormous motorcade as it
snaked down the road.
Many of Bush’s opponents were
polite. One of the first signs he saw
read “Please Leave.”
Others were more blunt. At
lunchtime, a sign close to Bush’s
motorcade urged him to go home
and depicted him riding atop a mis
sile with a swastika on it.
The beef ban is a leading irritant
in a relationship that has suffered
during Bush’s presidency, and the
issue loomed large in Bush’s first
official trip to Canada.
In their private meetings, Martin
vented “a great deal of frustration
that the issue hadn’t been resolved
yet,” Bush said.
“This has been studied to death,”
Martin said of the Canadian beef
ban, in place since May 2003.
BUSH, page 12
Lawmakers overturned a decision that declared Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych's victory to he invaild
Saving the hiyvna
Ukraine’s Central Bank placed
limits on transactions Tuesday
amid fears that political unrest
could reverse recent gains in the
value of the nation’s currency.
Ukrainian hryvna to the
U.S. dollar, 2004
25 hryvna
Analysts said fears of economic col
lapse were stoked in part by Kuch
ma, who earlier likened the divided
nation’s finances to a precarious
“house of cards.”
But Yanukovych’s backers in east
ern Ukraine blamed the hundreds of
thousands of Yushchenko supporters
who have kept up massive street
protests since the election.
For a second day, the Supreme
Court heard an opposition appeal fo
cusing on results from eight eastern
and southern regions — more than
15 million votes, almost half of the
total cast in the runoff.
BY VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s shiver
ing but determined political opposi
tion dug in its heels in Kiev’s frigid
central square Tuesday, rejecting an
offer of the prime minister’s job
from the declared winner of the dis
puted presidential election and with
drawing from talks aimed at reach
ing a compromise.
The election dispute sparked a
struggle at Ukraine’s parliament,
with throngs of opposition support
ers trying to storm inside after law
makers tentatively approved a resolu
tion that would cancel Saturday’s
nonbinding decision to declare the
election results invalid. Protesters —
some crawlihg on each other’s shoul
ders — got as far as the lobby before
police pushed them back.
The government, which is sup
ported by powerful neighbor Russia,
pushed ahead with offers that sought
to placate or isolate Ukraine’s popu
lar opposition leader, Viktor
Yushchenko, who favors closer ties
with the West.
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych,
whose victory in the Nov. 21 presi
dential runoff has been challenged as
fraudulent, suggested he could agree
to outgoing President Leonid Kuch
ma’s proposal for a new election, but
that both he and Yushchenko should
bow out if one is held.
“If this election brings a split in the
country ... I’m reqdy to drop my bid
along with him,” Yanukovych said.
Yushchenko ignored the proposal.
He also rebuffed the offer of the prime
minister’s post under a Yanukovych
presidency, saying it fell far short of a
solution to Ukraine’s crisis.
“The election was rigged,” he said.
“People are asking whether this
country has a political elite capable of
upholding a fair vote.”
Yushchenko has led the opposi
tion for years and was long seen as
its candidate in the election in a
country where millions are yearning
for change after Kuchma’s 10-year
rule. By contrast, Kuchma anointed
Yanukovych as his favored successor
in spring, hoping his prominence
and publicity as prime minister
would attract votes.
On Thesday, Yanukovych pleaded
for an end to round-the-clock
protests, which he said would ruin
the economy, but the opposition
promised to tighten its blockade of
official buildings.
The political crisis has led to fears
that Ukraine, which has the fastest
growing economy in Europe but
where millions live in poverty, could
plunge into economic turmoil. Many
Ukrainians have waited in long lines
to exchange the national currency,
hryvna, for U.S. dollars.
Ukraine’s Central Bank moved
Tuesday to counter a run on bank
deposits by imposing tough limits
on the amount of money citizens
can exchange and withdraw.
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