Canada and the 2008 United States presidential election

A Canadian opinion poll conducted by Environics Research on behalf of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Environics Institute, "The Globe and Mail" and "Le Devoir" asked 2,001 Canadians over the age of 15 questions about how they see their role, and Canada's role, in the world. In the poll, 15% of Canadians polled said they would give up their vote in the next Canadian election to vote in the next American election. Forty-six percent of Canadians stated the results of the 2008 American presidential election mattered a great deal, 35% responded the results mattered somewhat and 8% responded the results didn't matter at all.

NAFTA

Canada has played an unusually large role in the 2008 presidential campaign, centred around the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). On February 26, 2008, during the debates between Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, both Democratic candidates stated possibly opting out of NAFTA if certain conditions were not met, though they only stated Mexico, and did not mention trade relations with Canada.

The next day reports emerged claiming that Barack Obama's economic advisor Austan Goolsbee had met with Canadian consular officials in Chicago and told them to disregard Obama's campaign rhetoric regarding NAFTA, a charge the Obama campaign later denied. The leak became an issue in the Democratic primary, hurting the Obama campaign. It later emerged that the news had come from the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Ian Brodie; however, he had actually claimed that someone from Clinton's campaign had even contacted Canadian diplomats to tell them not to worry because the NAFTA threats were mostly political posturing. The Canadian Press news agency quoted that source as saying that Brodie said that someone from Clinton's campaign called and was "telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt." cite web
url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080305.wnafta06/BNStory/National/home
title=PM's top aide set off storm with Obama NAFTA leak
publisher=The Globe and Mail
accessdate=2008-03-06
last=Clark
first=Campbell] The Clinton campaign denies it. "We flatly deny the report," says Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer. "We did not sanction nor would we ever sanction anyone to say any such a thing. We give the Canadian government blanket immunity to reveal the name of anyone in the Clinton campaign think they heard from." [cite web
url=http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/nafta-confusion.html
title=NAFTA Confusion
publisher=ABC News
accessdate=2008-03-06
last=Tapper
first=Jake] [cite web
url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/07/politics/main3917405.shtml
title=Clinton Team Also Talked To Canada
publisher=CBS News
accessdate=2008-03-07
last=
first=]

In Canada, the leak was seen as an attempt by Conservative Prime Minister Harper's office to harm Obama's political campaign and help Republican candidate John McCain. It caused a scandal within Canada that some dubbed "Naftagate" and contributed to the resignation of Chief of Staff Ian Brodie several weeks later.

On June 11 it was announced that John McCain would be traveling to Ottawa to deliver a major policy speech on free trade. This is the first time in U.S. history that a presidential candidate has planned to make a major campaign event in Canada. [" [http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/441587 McCain to speak on free trade in Ottawa] " "Toronto Star" June 11, 2008.]

ee also

*Canada and the United States presidential elections

References

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