LogFAQs > #886288818

It is not a stretch at all. The entire issue is that the Federation had a treaty with the Cardassian ceding border worlds, later turned Maquis worlds, to them and the Federation officially condemned the Maquis and cooperated with Cardassian efforts to apprehend them. They absolutely sided with the Cardassians.

Dash_Harber posted...

They had some more rivalry ongoing for about the first half of the series. I think it actually ended when during the mutli-episode story arch where Tom kept acting out and it came to a head when Tom and Chakotay almost came to blows, leading to Tom leaving the ship, joining the Kazon, and then turning out to be a double agent.

That whole incident was an act to give Tom's departure credibility to the leak, so it hardly lends credence to them still having a strained relationship.