After four years of trade clashes, unpredictable foreign policy and insults lobbed at the prime minister by tweet, Canadian officials are optimistic that the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden will mean a return to traditionally close relations between Canada and the United States But this week, they were dealt a stinging reminder that Biden will also bring the return of more familiar bilateral irritants — including the difference over a project that a former U.S. ambassador to Canada once described as a “ toe stubber ”: the Keystone XL pipeline. Biden’s plans to quickly terminate the project were greeted with disappointment in Canada’s prairie provinces and in Ottawa, even if they could not have been a surprise. Biden pledged to shut down the pipeline during the campaign as part of his green agenda, but Canadian officials hoped they would still have a chance to catch his […]