There is $1.4 billion a day in trade that goes back and forth across the border. That means millions of jobs and livelihoods for families here in Canada and for families in the United States.

The agreement to place the binational planning group at our new Northern Command was also signed in December.

Canada is preparing to play a major role in the continued stability and security of Afghanistan through ISAF.

Our ties are deep and long-standing. We are dependent on each other. And no matter what the issue of the day, whether it be softwood lumber, whether it be a war in Iraq, we need to continue to work together.

Yet there is disappointment in Washington and in the United States that Canada is not supporting us fully.

We already get more energy from Canada than from any other foreign country.

Like Canada, we very much wanted the United Nations to be a relevant and effective body. But once those efforts failed, we no longer saw things from a multilateral perspective. For us, now, it is much more basic than that. It is about family.