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since the Great Depression. President Obama and his advisers have been fond of saying that crises present important opportunities for reform that should not go to waste, and both health-care reform and measures to stabilize an economy in precipitous decline are notable milestones. However, the 2010 U.S. midterm elections were disastrous for Democrats across the country, and for the president in particular. Health-care reform tapped the administration’s political capital and sparked controversy around the United States. Similarly, the president’s economic plan, including Wall Street bailouts, won the administration few points; some saw the president’s agenda as far too interventionist, and others saw it as not ambitious enough.
In any event, the Obama administration enters 2012 confronting myriad challenges, having spent most of the political capital earned in the historic 2008 elections on health care and bailouts, and facing a hostile Republican majority in the House of Representatives through at least 2012. The U.S. economy is mired in near–double digit unemployment figures, and much unfinished business remains, including dealing with climate change, immigration reform, energy security, and America’s looming fiscal deficit. Abroad, the war in Afghanistan, leadership in the global economy, and a range of unknowns will be central to the U.S. agenda in the next few years. Moreover, the 2012 presidential election campaign has already begun and will be longer, noisier, and more expensive than past contests—drawing attention away from pressing national issues.
Canadians have historically chafed at the inattention given to bilateral issues on the American agenda, but it could be said that Canada is even further down the Obama administration’s list of priorities than it has been during past U.S. administrations. In fact, although President Obama and Prime Minister Harper met more than a dozen times in the first two years of the Obama administration, a range of bilateral Canada-U.S. and trilateral North American issues have been left wanting for attention.
Canada and the United States maintain one of the world’s most dynamic, complex, and important bilateral relationships. However, the challenges of this relationship abound, and the notion of “partnership”