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Canada Defends Obama Over NAFTA Flap •
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Blame in Canada
By Ian Austen
The New York Times
Monday 03 March 2008
Ottawa - It's not at all unusual for Stephen Harper, the prime minister
of Canada, and the members of his cabinet to be grilled by the opposition parties
in Parliament. It isn't common, however for the partisan bickering here
to be focused on the Democratic primary in the United States.
On Monday, the fighting over a report that a senior campaign official to Barack
Obama had provided back-channel reassurances to the Canadian government on the
North American Free Trade Agreement, erupted in Parliament as Mr. Harper fended
off allegations that he was interfering in the U.S. elections and trying to
undermine Mr. Obama's campaign.
The mix of the two countries' politics was prompted by the leak of a memo
from Canada's consulate general in Chicago to the Associated Press. Diplomats
there had met with Austan Goolsbee, an economics professor at the University
of Chicago who is Mr. Obama's senior economic policy adviser. NAFTA, which
is as contentious among some Canadians as it with some Americans, was on the
agenda.
The memo back to officials in Ottawa, which was as much a piece of analysis
of Mr. Goolsbee's remarks as a reporting of the meeting, said that Mr.
Obama's promise to renegotiate the trade deal "should be viewed
as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans."
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has taken the memo, and earlier reports about
the meeting, as evidence that Mr. Obama's public position on the trade
deal is not the same as his private view. Mr. Obama's campaign said the
memo does not accurately reflect Mr. Goolsbee's remarks.
In Canada, however, interest has centered on who leaked the memo and that person's
motives. Unlike Washington, Canadian government documents are protected by strict
secrecy laws and rarely make their way to reporters. That has particularly been
the case with Mr. Harper's Conservative government which keeps unusually
tight control on information.
When question period arrived, it was Canada's leading critic of Nafta,
New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton, who raised an ABC News report that
identified Mr. Harper's chief of staff, Ian Brodie, as the source of the
leak.
"Canadians have become increasingly alarmed at reports that the prime
minister's office has been interfering in the Democratic primaries with
false accusations, trying to silence Barack Obama who simply wants to amend
the Nafta," Mr. Layton told Parliament before demanding that Mr. Harper
fire Mr. Brodie, "the source of the interference."
Mr. Harper, whose government summoned the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to
investigate other leaks, ignored Mr. Layton's suggestion about his top
political aide.
Instead, Mr. Harper said the Canadian embassy in Washington "regretted
the fact that information has come out that would imply that Senator Obama has
been saying different things in public than in private. The government of Canada
does not condone this and certainly regrets any implication."
Mr. Harper also mocked suggestions that he could undermine Mr. Obama's
campaign.
"I am a little bit amused by the question of the leader of the N.D.P.
who is suggesting that we are so all powerful we could interfere in the American
election and pick their president for them," Mr. Harper said. "This
government does not claim that kind of power."
In an interview after the exchange, Mr. Layton, whose left of center party
is backed by many unions, said that he will continue to believe that Mr. Brodie
was the source unless the government shows otherwise. But the Conservative government's
motive, he added, was most likely its strong support for continental free trade.
An earlier Conservative government negotiated Nafta as well as the free trade
agreement between Canada and the United States that preceded it.
"I can only surmise that Mr. Harper wants to silence those in the U.S.
Democratic race who are trying to raise issues about Nafta and, in doing so,
help his Republican friends through a happy coincidence," Mr. Layton said.
"Canadians would be very concerned if there were any similar attempts
by Americans to influence a Canadian election."
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Canada Defends Obama Over NAFTA Flap
By David Ljunggren
Reuters
Monday 03 March 2008
Ottawa - Canada defended Democratic front-runner Barack Obama Monday over accusations
from rival Hillary Clinton that he is secretly at ease with a hemispheric trade
accord which he publicly blames for losing U.S. jobs.
Clinton's criticism, on the eve of make-or-break presidential nomination contests
for her in Ohio and Texas, stemmed from a report by Canadian television station
CTV that an Obama economic adviser told Canadian officials the candidate was
not seriously considering disrupting the trade accord.
But the Canadian Embassy in Washington released a statement essentially backing
up the Obama camp's version of the meeting between adviser Austan Goolsbee and
officials at the Canadian consulate in Chicago.
"There was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and
his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed
in private, including about NAFTA," the embassy statement said. "We
deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect."
The consulate's written report of the meeting had left the suggestion that
Obama's words on NAFTA were designed for a political audience and should not
be taken too seriously, prompting an angry denial from the Obama campaign.
Clinton, a New York senator, has made an issue of what she says is Obama's
support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which her husband, former
President Bill Clinton, signed in 1994 but which is now under heavy election-year
criticism from her and Obama.
On Monday, Clinton challenged Obama's credibility on the trade issue ahead
of the nomination contest in Ohio, where concern over the NAFTA trade agreement
has become a key issue.
"It raises questions about Senator Obama coming to Ohio and giving speeches
about NAFTA and having his chief economic adviser tell the Canadian government
that it was just political rhetoric," she said at an early morning news
conference in Ohio.
Both candidates fighting for the Democratic nomination to face the Republicans'
choice in the November election have threatened to pull the United States out
of NAFTA unless it is renegotiated.
They said the accord has hurt the manufacturing base in such states as economically
hard-hit Ohio, which along with Texas votes on Tuesday.
Canada PM Denies Interference
Some U.S. Democrats accused Canada's right-leaning Conservative government
of trying to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.
That charge led Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take the unusual
step of denying that Canada was trying to stir up trouble in the election process
of its powerful southern neighbor.
"I certainly deny any allegation that this government has attempted to
interfere in the American election," he told the country's parliament.
"The American people will make the decision as to their next president
and I am confident that whoever that person is ... (they) will continue the
strong alliance, friendship and partnership that we enjoy with the United States."
Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States and would be badly
hurt if Washington pulled out of NAFTA.
The U.S. Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor think tank, has blamed NAFTA
for more than 1 million U.S. job losses, most of them in manufacturing, since
1994. However, others put the tally much lower than that.
Obama, an Illinois senator, acknowledged that a meeting did take place between
Goolsbee and the Canadian consulate officials but added, "He said exactly
what I've been saying on the campaign trail."
In San Antonio, Texas, Obama said, "This notion that Senator
Clinton is peddling that somehow there's contradictions or winks and nods has
been disputed by all parties involved."
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Additional reporting by Caren
Bohan and Ellen Wulfhorst; writing by Steve Holland; editing by Stuart Grudgings.
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