الرئيس السابق جورج دبليو. Bush kicked off his post-presidential speaking career in Canada yesterday — at a $400-a-plate lunch in Calgary.

على الرغم من أن كالغاري هيرالد وذكرت أنه تم تلقى ترحيبا حارا خطابه, تقريبا 200 protesters gathered outside, charging Bush with war crimes. Many of the protesters ألقوا الأحذية at a poster of the former president. ليس بالضبط the lovey-dovey welcome that greeted President Obama when he visited Ottawa last month…

According to the Calgary newspaper, “Bush, who left office with one of the lowest approval ratings of any president in history, اختار ملاذا آمنا كالجاري, perhaps second only to Houston or Dallas in terms of friendly territory, to test-drive his new speaking career.” Or as columnist Jeffrey Simpson put it in the جلوب اند ميل, “هناك كان, in perhaps the only city in Canada that would have him.”

As Americans who were living in Canada during the Bush era undoubtedly know, the former president was hugely unpopular across most of the country.

تصوير Hanumann (فليكر)