Bush attracts protesters in Canada

CALGARY, Alberta, March 17 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President George W. Bush spoke up for free trade and against isolationism in Canada Tuesday, drawing protesters who called him a war criminal.

The Republican who served eight years as leader of the world's most powerful country but left it swirling in economic turmoil cautioned against too much government involvement in trying to turn the situation around, The Calgary Herald reported.

"It's the risk takers, not the government, that is (sic) going to pull us out of this recession," Bush said without mentioning his successor, Democratic President Barack Obama, by name. "My message to policy makers is don't substitute government for the market place. Don't become protectionist. I'm a free-trader to the core."

While Bush addressed about 1,500 people who paid at least $400 each to hear him make his first speech since leaving the White House in January in Calgary's Telus Centre, about 400 protesters outside blew whistles and carried signs demanding he be tried as a war criminal. At least four of them were arrested, though police characterized the demonstrators as largely peaceful, the Herald said.

Orest Slepokura of Strathmore had a sign putting Bush alongside convicted U.S. financier Bernie Madoff.

"Of the two, I would say that Bernie Madoff comes off almost saintly by comparison," she said.