HALIFAX — Anti-war activists hope U.S. President George W. Bush hears their message when he travels through downtown Halifax to thank Canadians for their hospitality after thousands of travellers were stranded after Sept. 11, 2001.

Bush is scheduled to speak at Pier 21 on the waterfront at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, as part of his first official state trip to Canada.

The Halifax Peace Coalition is organizing a rally outside City Hall to coincide with his visit. Members plan to march the short distance to the pier with signs reading "He's Not Welcome."

"It'll be a mass, peaceful demonstration in the tradition of the gigantic demonstrations that helped keep Canada out of the war in Iraq," said George Diamond, with the coalition.

Local surfers are also planning their own demonstration.

The Nova Scotia Surfers for Peace Coalition wants Bush to make "waves, not war," and hopes to present the president with his own surf board.

"It's a short board and he's invited to come out and take up surfing with us this week," said surfer and novelist Lesley Choyce, a former American who moved to Nova Scotia from New Jersey in 1978.

"We're going to show him goodwill and generosity. We have this feeling that if he falls off and he gets that cold, clean Nova Scotian Atlantic water on his head that he might just come to his senses and change his mind."

But security will be tight during the president's two-hour stop in Halifax. It's unclear whether Bush will be driven from the airport to Pier 21 or take a helicopter.

Bush's audience at Pier 21 will be hand-picked. It's expected to include people who housed stranded passengers following the 9/11 attacks three years ago.

Dwight Mason, a former U.S. diplomat who held a senior position at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa in the 1990s, is pleased Bush is delivering his thank-you speech in Halifax, and not in Ottawa.

"He's going to the centre, as it were, where the people up there in Nova Scotia did a lot of this and they really do deserve to be thanked in person by the president and I'm glad he's doing it," said Mason, who's now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Bush's visit to Ottawa and Halifax this week is being touted as an opportunity to mend strained relations between the two countries.

Copyright © CBC 2004

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