While news reports of President Bush’s visit to Ottawa might give the impression that he’s the least popular American in Canada right now, he’s getting a run for his money from Vince Carter.

Carter continues to torment our neighbors to the north with his half-hearted efforts, laying waste to a treasure trove of talent in the process. The past three seasons were bad enough – Carter has shied away from contact more each year, settling for 20-foot fadeaways – but his performance this season takes the cake. Thus far, the one-time superstar is shattering his career lows in scoring, rebounds, and shooting percentage.

Carter’s declining taste for going to the basket is immediately apparent by looking at his free-throw rate. When he was leading the Raptors to new heights in 1999 and 2000, Carter averaged 6.7 free throw attempts a game, one of the better marks in the league. He now attempts half as many – just 3.4 a contest. Carter averaged over 25 points per game in those seasons, but he’s hit that mark just three times in 2004-05.

For a basketball fan, nothing is more discouraging than watching a player with obvious talent sleepwalk his way through a season. Fans of the Bulls or Hawks can at least take solace in the fact that their team is trying like heck every night – they just don’t have much talent. But Toronto hoops aficionados have had to put up with three straight losing seasons and Carter’s serial indifference.

This is the same man who once jumped over a 7-foot Frenchman at the 2000 Sydney Olympics for arguably the greatest dunk in history. This is the same man who, in just his third NBA season, took Toronto to within one shot of the Eastern Conference finals, overcoming the mediocrity of his supporting cast with his frightening forays to the rim. (And as Raptors fans no doubt recall, this is the same man who ran his cousin Tracy McGrady out of town.)

Carter still has those electrifying hops, but the rim-rattling dunks they engendered are mostly a memory. Tuesday night, for instance, Carter took one foul shot while drifting through a 2-for-9, five-point “effort”, his third single-digit performance of the season. The sad part is that it wasn’t a big story, because Vince Carter being held to five points is no longer news.

Carter’s lethargy has been even more apparent than in previous seasons because he’s bending over backwards to force the Raptors to trade him. He was among several star players (using the term loosely here) who demanded to be moved in the off-season, the reasoning being that new general manager Rob Babcock hadn’t made a concerted effort to improve the team.

He had something of a point, since point guard Rafer Alston was the only important addition to a 33-49 team. But Carter failed to realize that Babcock and new coach Sam Mitchell both figured that Mr. Half-man, Half-amazing himself was supposed to be the main engine of the team’s improvement. With former head coach and certified whack job Kevin O’Neill out of the picture, the reasoning went, Carter might be convinced to give a sustained effort reminiscent of his 2001 playoff performance, and in so doing be the tide that lifted the other Raptor boats.

No such luck. Carter evidently figured that if he couldn’t get a trade by demanding it, he’d play so unenthusiastically that the team would have no choice. He tried to put the “I” in “iPod” by shutting out his teammates during warmups and listening to his headphones instead. Defensively, he’s giving such lackluster efforts that Raptors coach Sam Mitchell frequently benches him in the fourth quarter.

One has to admit that Carter’s strategy is working: Nobody in Toronto doubts that they need to trade him. The irony of the situation is that the team around Carter now is pretty good. Despite his pathetic performance in Miami on Tuesday, the Raptors were able to knock off a good Heat team on the road to improve to 7-9 on the season – not bad considering their rough early schedule.

If Carter was actually trying, the Raptors might be running away with the Atlantic Division.

The success of the others despite Carter’s sloth adds an urgency for the Raptors to out their reluctant star. If they wait until the trade deadline, they will have forfeited half a season during which they could have dealt Carter for a more willing participant much sooner.

Unfortunately for the Raptors, Carter’s trade value sinks with each mailed-in performance. The other 29 teams aren’t particularly excited about his maxed-out contract, nor do they feel an urgent need to make a deal until the deadline is imminent. This puts the Raptors in a position where they may have to get 75 cents on the dollar (at least they’re Canadian, so they’re used to this).

A trade with Portland for Shareef Abdur-Rahim is one possible outcome, but Abdur-Rahim would add to a crowded frontcourt without returning a replacement for Carter on the wing. New Orleans guard and fellow trade-demander Baron Davis is another possibility, especially with the reeling Hornets looking for somebody who can sell tickets. But the injury-prone Davis also holds a long-term max contract, so the Raptors may sniff around for better deals.

When the Raptors do pull the trigger, the million-dollar question is which Vince Carter will show up in the new city. Will he be the energized Vince Carter of old who drives aggressively to the basket and leaves fans in awe of his aerial acrobatics? Or will he be the Carter of a more recent visage, who seems only tangentially interested in the game and lobs up jump shots because it’s easier than putting up with occasional contact on the way to the rim.

Only Vince knows the answer, but his once-unassailable popularity in the Great White North is a goner either way. At least President Bush has four years to mend his reputation; Canada’s public enemy no. 2 might not have four weeks.