A member of the Montreal Police riot squad tosses a sandal thown by protesters into a bin full of shoes in front of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal Thursday, October 22, 2009 during visit and luncheon speech by the former United States president George W. Bush.

Photograph by: (THE GAZETTE/John Mahoney)

A relaxed and jovial former United States president George W. Bush spoke with confidence and very few regrets about some of the most controversial decisions during his presidency to an appreciative audience at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel yesterday.

"I am confident that I made decisions based on principle, that I made calls as best I could, and I did not sell my soul," Bush told an audience of about 1,000 men and women, most clad in black business suits, at the $400-a-seat steak luncheon held by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal.

The speech, part of a cross-country tour organized in part to promote Bush's coming autobiography, was followed by a question-and-answer period hosted by John Parisella, Quebec's delegate-general to New York.

Bush began with jokes about what it's like to be an ex-president, recounting a story of walking into a Dallas hardware store about a month after he left office. A store employee asked if anyone had ever told him he looks a lot like George W. Bush.

"I said, 'Happens almost every day, actually,' and as I'm walking away, I hear the guy saying, 'Sure must make you mad!' "

Bush, looking rested and fit in a white shirt, grey suit, and gold and red striped tie, defended his decisions to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and to bail out Wall St. with taxpayers' money.

Asked by Parisella whether he would reconsider any of his decisions, Bush brought up his failure to complete reforms of immigration and Social Security, and his handling of the Hurricane Katrina crisis in 2005.

"I spend a lot of time thinking about Katrina, and whether I could have sent in the federal troops right away, even though it was against the law," he said, adding repeatedly that he will reveal more in his book, to be published at the end of 2010.

While listing his few regrets, Bush included "some of my language," like his Wild West rhetoric of wanting Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."

While his speech was mostly eloquent and free of the language gaffes he acknowledges Bush is famous for, he did stumble on a word or two. He said he regretted appearing in front of a "Mission Impossible" sign during a televised address in 2003. The controversial banner referring to the U.S. mission in Iraq actually said "Mission Accomplished."

While careful not to directly criticize President Barack Obama, Bush voiced concern about growing U.S. protectionism and praised Canada for signing free-trade deals with the U.S. and other nations.

He said he hopes Canada will become a major supplier of oil and uranium for nuclear power to the United States in the future. "I would rather import energy from Canada than from across the world where people don't like us."

Parisella, who sparred with Bush a little during the Q&A, said Bush definitely has the "beer factor."

"I can understand why he did well in politics. He is very likeable," Parisella said.

mlalonde@thegazette.canwest.com