L'ancien président George W. Bush kicked off his post-presidential speaking career in Canada yesterday — at a $400-a-plate lunch in Calgary.

Bien que l' Calgary Herald a indiqué que son discours a été chaleureusement accueilli, approximativement 200 protesters gathered outside, charging Bush with war crimes. Many of the protesters chaussures lancées at a poster of the former president. Pas exactement 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, choisi le refuge de Calgary, 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 Globe and Mail, “Il était là, 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.

Photo Hanumann (Flickr)