FOR-Int-0027-Stock Lone Primate/Flickr/Creative Commons

The Prime Minister of Canada visits Washington. He gets a 40-plus-minute meeting with the President and the balance of the hour as a media availability session in the Oval Office. He meets with the Senate Majority and Minority leaders, and the Democratic and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives. He arrives as the leader of the country with the Western world's healthiest banking system and strongest recovery from recession.

And what is the preoccupation of the Canadian media covering the visit?

Here's CTV's Don Matheson interviewing a man introduced to television viewers as "political commentator Mark Plotkin." Matheson: Mr. Plotkin, I take it that it matters who greets you at the White House. I didn't see Barack Obama there as Stephen Harper was being ushered in.

Plotkin: I'm not being hyperbolic or inflammatory but I thought it was an unbelievable insult and snub. If you are--quote--important, the president comes out and greets you as you depart from the car and ushers you in.

I am supposed to know something about American politics, and believe me, I do not know who the woman was who greeted [your prime minister].

I tried to find out and I was told by the national security press advisor that supposedly that was the deputy chief of protocol, not the chief of protocol of the state department.

I don't know if it was deliberate or accidental, but it surely was not a symbolic gesture of friendship and it was really, in my mind, demeaning.

Ah! Exactly what every Canadian wants to hear! Their country has been insulted, demeaned as usual by the arrogant Americans.

But it's not only Canada that has been insulted. Think of the terrible insult to Iraq when Deputy Chief of Protocol Dennis Cheng greeted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the door of the West Wing in August 2009.

And British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was greeted by a protocol officer during his visit in May 2009.

OK joke over. Did the U.S. actually dare to insult Iraq and Britain? No of course not.

As CTV might have told its viewers, Mark Plotkin is a city hall reporter. If you have a question about the next District of Columbia mayoral race, Plotkin is your man. But about the White House, the guy knows nothing.

White House visits occur at three levels of formality: state visits, "official working" visits, and working visits. In a state visit, the dignitary guest arrives at the north portico of the White House residence, there to be greeted by the president and (if accompanied by spouse) the first lady. The visit culminates in a formal black-tie or white-tie dinner.

An "official working visit" occupies an intermediate level of formality. No state dinner, but still much bunting and time-consuming protocol.

The most common and useful type of meeting is the least formal, the working visit. Harper's meeting with Obama was just such a visit. For a working visit, the guest arrives not at the north portico of the residence, but at the West Wing. He or she arrives without spouse. He or she is greeted by a protocol officer with minimal formalities, and then ushered directly into the president's office to get straight to work. There will be no state dinner: Tuxedos can be left at home. It's not a slight. In fact, for busy people, the highest level of courtesy is the one that demands the least waste of time.

The closer the alliance between the visitor and the United States, the more informal the reception is likely be. When the Sultan of Nowhereistan arrives for a once-in-a-lifetime meeting with the president, the White House personnel roll out the red carpet. But when the prime minister of Canada or Britain or Israel arrives, it's typically all business. This week's meeting with the seventh between Prime Minister Harper and President Obama. The two men have no need--and precious little time--for niceties. They went straight to work on the shared economic and financial troubles confronting the two North American partners. Can't the Canadian media be half so businesslike? And if they want to talk protocol, can't they find somebody who actually knows something about the subject?

But then, maybe that would not suit the Canadian collective neurosis. President Obama could welcome Prime Minister Harper at Andrews Air Force base, and lead him into town on the back of an elephant, with maidens throwing flower petals at him all the way up Pennsylvania Avenue--and yet I am sure that the Canadian media could find someone to sniff that the petals thrown for the Australian prime minister had been fresher and prettier.

David Frum is a resident fellow at AEI.