Canadian politicians risk hurting the relationship with the United States by using anti-U.S. rhetoric in their election campaign, U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins warned Tuesday.

"I understand political expediency, but the last time I looked, the United States was not on the ballot for the Jan. 23 election," Wilkins said in a speech to the Canadian Club in Ottawa.

Wilkins was supposed to be referring to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's recent critical remarks on the U.S. refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol.

"To the reticent nations, including the United States, I say there is such a thing as a global conscience, and now is the time to listen to it," Martin told the UN conference on climate change in Montreal on Dec. 7.

The White House took Martin's rebuke as cheap electioneering during the campaign leading to the Jan. 23 vote. An official from the U.S. government reportedly summoned Canadian ambassador to voice its anger.

"My understanding is that Mr. Connaughton (U.S. environmental envoy James Connaughton) made very clear his unhappiness (to Canadian ambassador) over Mr. Martin's comments and particularly singling out the United States," a U.S. State Department official was cited as saying.

In his speech Wilkins took the chance to retort Martin by saying that "The United States is, in fact, reducing emissions and spending more money on tackling climate change than any other country in the world, having spent over 20 billion U.S. dollars in the last five years."

He said he feared Canada's attitude would hurt the Canada-U.S. relationship unless "all of us make a concerted effort to simply tone it down."

The ambassador's wide-ranging speech also touched on other issues of contention between the United States and Canada including border security and softwood lumber taxes.

Noting that the U.S. slashed tariffs almost in half last week, he reminded Canadians that the U.S. is Canada's NO.1 trading partner and 97 percent of trade between the two countries is "seamless," and amounts to 1.5 billion dollars a day.

But Liberal leader Martin was quick to fend off that criticism. Asked to comment on Wilkins' speech by reporters on Tuesday, he said: "I have not made the United States a target in this campaign."

He said his positions on softwood lumber and climate change are ones he adopted "long before any election was contemplated."

The prime minister has also been tough on demanding the United States stop levying taxes on Canadian softwood lumber in recent months, and spoken some acid remarks.

Source: Xinhua