OTTAWA—Canada’s dealings with the United States seemed full of shining promise when U.S. President Barack Obama arrived on his first official visit to Ottawa in early 2009. But the enthusiasm that Canadians displayed for the new American leader six years ago has not translated into any improvement in Canada’s most important bilateral relationship.

While Canada-U.S. affairs have always had their ups and downs, the current state of interaction between Ottawa and Washington may be the worst since 2003, when former prime minister Jean Chrétien kept Canada from joining in then-U.S. president George W. Bush’s military incursion in Iraq.

Now six years under consideration in the U.S. capital, the Keystone XL pipeline proposal stands as the most obvious emblem of this inauspicious state of affairs. The continuing lack of a decision by Obama on building the $8-billion conduit to carry oilsands-derived crude from Alberta into the U.S. has been a source of deep frustration for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

Harper has not hidden his feelings about the delay, telling Americans that approving Keystone was a “no-brainer” and his government would not take “no for an answer” on the project. The Canadian government also spent millions of dollars plastering Washington, D.C. subways with advertising meant to pave the way for Keystone with Obama. And a frustrated Baird told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last winter that Canada was tired of waiting and just wanted a decision on the pipeline, “even if it’s not the right one.”

Relations between Harper and his cabinet and the Obama administration range from cordial at best to downright frigid, insiders say. Obama has hinted that the Harper government undermined its own pro-Keystone position by not doing more to curb greenhouse gas emissions from oilsands production.

The president has repeatedly scoffed at the supposed benefits that Keystone would bring to the United States, most recently asserting in particularly pejorative fashion that Keystone would allow Canadians to send their petroleum through the U.S. for export “to everyone else.”

Many believe Obama, intent on improving his legacy on climate change, will keep putting off a decision on Keystone, which U.S. environmentalists say would worsen global warming by increasing greenhouse gasses as a result of expanded oilsands production. But there is as well speculation the beleaguered president will feel compelled early next year to allow the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress to bypass his authority and authorize construction of Keystone.

That would obviously improve Canada-U.S. ties but it may fall short of what’s needed to fully repair a relationship that, despite glowing vows of good-faith co-operation only a few years ago, appears to have reached one of the lowest points in modern times.

Dealings with the U.S. would be going much better if Canada had handled the Keystone issue differently, says NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar.

“There’s no question that our failure to bring in gas and oil regulations is an irritant between ourselves and Washington. It’s undermined the government’s very agenda to get Keystone going,” Dewar said.

Louis Delvoie, a former Canadian diplomat who is a fellow at Queen’s University, says Harper’s aggressive push for Keystone was certain to sour relations. “A U.S. president doesn’t like to be publicly pressured, and it’s a mistake to try and do this with so much publicity,” he said.

Others say the deterioration in Canada-U.S. relations owes more to a lack of attention from Obama.

“In some ways, the inwardness and, shall we say, lack of judicious concern for the interests of key neighbours by this administration, is unparalleled,” Fen Hampson, a foreign affairs specialist at The Centre for International Governance Innovation, told the Star.

“It’s pretty apparent Canada just isn’t even on the radar screen and that’s true of many other key allies of the U.S.”

While Canada and the U.S. have worked together in the Afghanistan war, border policing, military action to confront Islamic State and other endeavours, bilateral co-operation appears to have suffered from the lack of personal commitment at the very top in Ottawa and Washington.

“What I found in Brian Mulroney’s day was that the very strong relationship there was between the president and the prime minister meant that they were prepared to spend political capital to make the relationship succeed,” said Canadian Chamber of Commerce President Perrin Beatty, who served as a cabinet minister under Mulroney when Ronald Reagan was U.S. president.

“I think the relationship today is correct and it’s functioning well at many levels, but I don’t see the priority being given to North American issues that they deserve to have,” Beatty said.

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Besides Keystone, this plodding state of affairs is reflected in the ambitious but very slow-moving effort to reduce bottlenecks for travellers and commercial trucking at the Canada-U.S. frontier.

Another irritant is the round of protectionist Buy America regulations that has flared up recently in the U.S. “Canada’s focus is on eliminating trade barriers, not erecting new ones,” International Trade Minister Ed Fast said in a pointed letter to the Obama administration.

Canada has also been embroiled in a dispute with United States over meat-labelling laws that have hurt the beef and pork industries. And Ottawa is facing pressure from the United States to reduce longstanding protections for the Canadian dairy and poultry industries in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations.

While the long-delayed $4-billion bridge linking Windsor and Detroit appears closer to being built, the Obama administration has yet to come up with the $250 million needed to make the project a go. The money is for a U.S. customs plaza on the Detroit side.

However these issues are resolved, it is widely viewed as unlikely that relations between Canada and United States will improve dramatically until there is a reset with another president in two years.

Highs and Lows

February 2009: Newly elected U.S. President Barack Obama celebrated in Ottawa on his first official foreign visit.

November, 2011: After a delay in the Keystone pipeline decision, Harper tells Obama Canada will turn to Asia to sell its oil.

December 2011: With great fanfare, Harper and Obama meet at the White House to announce the Beyond the Border agreement to streamline the Canada-U.S. border.

November 2014: Obama slams Keystone proposal, saying: “Understand what this project is: It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land down to the Gulf where it will be sold everywhere else.”

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