Jeff,

There is no point in Canada opening these discussions in a bellicose fashion (and many reasons why to do so would be counterproductive).

I believe that you are mistaking as weakness Canada's opening attempt to frame these difficult negotiations in positive terms.  I read Canada's opening steps as a wise attempt to marshal foreign and US domestic support and generally to gauge the field of battle.  In this way, Canada will be best placed to counterpunch if necessary (and, importantly, avoid initiating disputes that the US doesn't intend to initiate and keep the talks productive insofar as the US is prepared to do likewise).

Canada is on firmer ground than your comment implies and we shouldn't psych ourselves out before negotiations are seriously begun.