Читать книгу A Richard Rohmer Omnibus - Richard Rohmer - Страница 30

Ottawa / 7:28 p.m., EDT

Robert Porter was back in his office, eating the steak Scott had produced and working on the draft of the TV address for nine o’clock. He had discussed the counter-sanction with both John Thomas and Scott, with Michael Clarkson, the Minister of Finance, and finally had reviewed it carefully with the Governor-General. They had all agreed that cutting off the oil and gas supply to the United States was a powerful weapon which stood a good chance of forcing the President’s hand and making him lift the ultimatum.

At 7:45 a call was placed to the President. The two exchanged terse greetings, and the President said, “Well, what can I do for you?”

“Mr. President, you’ve hit Canada hard today, first with your ultimatum and then with the decision to cut off the flow of investment capital even before we had a chance to respond.”

“Yes, it was a little rough, but I want to let you people know I mean business.”

“We already knew that. It takes a lot to get Canadians excited, but I think you’ve certainly been able to do it today. Now Mr. President, let me put it to you straight. We are by no means as helpless in this country to resist blackmail as you think. As the United States’ largest trading partner, we have very powerful economic weapons of our own, and since you have chosen to invoke sanctions against us without any prior discussion or warning, I am now going to give you a counter-sanction. But I intend to be fair about it; I won’t impose the sanction if you agree to the condition I suggest.”

“Well, let’s hear it.”

“Your country is currently receiving about 1½-million barrels of oil and three-billion cubic feet of gas per day from Western Canada. While Montreal and the Maritime Provinces used to be dependent upon oil supply from the United States, they too have a direct pipeline connection now with the West. Therefore, I’m going to order the flow of Canadian oil and gas into the United States cut off immediately unless you agree to lift the ultimatum.”

There was silence for a few moments. Then Porter could hear the President chuckling. “You know, down in Texas we like cool poker players, and you do pretty well, young fellow. That’s a pretty good card you’ve played, but not quite good enough. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If you agree not to impose the counter-sanction, I’ll agree to lift the embargo I put on at noon and not to put on the further sanction I was going to impose at midnight. In fact, I agree not to order any other sanctions between now and six o’clock tomorrow evening. The midnight sanction, by the way, was to close the border to the movement of all goods.”

It was Porter’s turn to pause as he thought over the President’s move. Reluctantly he said, “I’m afraid you won that hand, Mr. President, but if nothing else, I think you’ve got the message that we have some weapons of our own.”

“Yes,” the President replied, “but I think you’ll find you’re outgunned. Is there anything else, Mr. Prime Minister?”

“No, that’s all for the moment. You’ll hear from me.”

“I’m sure I will.” The President hung up, while Porter muttered to himself, “Half a loaf is better than none, I guess.”

John Thomas said, “You’ve got a real tough cookie at the other end of that telephone. He’s going to play this one right down to the wire.”

Porter nodded. “Yes, you’re certainly right. But now I’ve got to get that speech finished. Let’s go over it once again.”