There is bad news and good news for Americans on the international relations front. The bad news is that we are currently embroiled in a tense showdown with foreign hostiles. The good news is that the conflict is with Canada.
News junkies will recall that this summer, angry Canadian salmon fishermen briefly blockaded an Alaskan ferry in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to protest alleged overfishing of sockeye salmon in the waters of the Pacific Northwest. More recently, Premier Glen Clark of British Columbia tried to evict the U.S. Navy from a local torpedo range, though the Ottawa government intervened to prevent it. Clark and Washington Gov. Gary Locke have been trading gibes for some weeks.
Those Americans who grew up under the shadow of a nuclear Armageddon may have trouble getting worried about the salmon war of 1997. It appears destined to be fought out not by infantrymen or battleships but by lawyers, who already are firing withering volleys of paper.
Fishermen on either side of the border may get peeved when their interests collide, but the obvious truth is that Americans and Canadians have too much in common and too little to fight about for the friction to ever amount to much. Both sides seem to have heeded Oscar Wilde, who said you can never be too careful in the choice of your enemies.
