Anyone wondering why Canadians are so sensitive about North Dakota's intent to divert water from Devils Lake into a Canadian watershed, without treaty-required consultation, needs to consider the context.
http://www.devilslakejournal.com/articles/2005/07/05/news/news01.txt
First, a treaty is supreme law, trumping domestic law. And the U.S. and Canada have had a Boundary Waters Treaty requiring consultation for almost 100 years.
Second, some north of the border see it as an omen of things to come. The new proposed pact to protect the Great Lakes from water exports excludes Canada (except in a good-faith sense) and exempts the existing Chicago diversion from any Canadian oversight.
Third, the ignorance of the U.S. federal government and its emissaries about Canada is a bit worrisome:
David Wilkins, the new U.S. ambassador to Canada, introduced himself to Prime Minister Paul Martin in Ottawa on Wednesday. Canadians may have been glad to see him again: It was the first time he'd visited the country in 30 years.
Only a few weeks before, in an interview with Canada's CBC News, the newly appointed Wilkins said he'd been to Canada only one time -- and that was in the mid-1970s. He told the interviewer he'd visited the Niagara Falls area.
When pressed for other cities he'd been to in Canada, he named none specifically. When pressed further, he said he'd visited the area "back toward Indiana" where he was stationed in the Army, but added it was "well, obviously above Indiana."
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050630/NEWS/506300368/1036