Obama Camp to Canada: Anti-NAFTA Talk Just Rhetoric

[Tuckerfan]

So says the Canadian press.

Within the last month, a top staff member for Obama’s campaign telephoned Michael Wilson, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, and warned him that Obama would speak out against NAFTA, according to Canadian sources.

The staff member reassured Wilson that the criticisms would only be campaign rhetoric, and should not be taken at face value.

But Tuesday night in Ohio, where NAFTA is blamed for massive job losses, Obama said he would tell Canada and Mexico “that we will opt out unless we renegotiate the core labour and environmental standards.”

Late Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Obama campaign said the staff member’s warning to Wilson sounded implausible, but did not deny that contact had been made.

I’m not really surprised, and I doubt that Hillary’s really serious about the matter, either.

[Antigen]

My work visa is NAFTA-related, so I sure hope nothing changes enough to boot me from the country.

[Sunspace]

And here I was hoping…

Read the comments in the linked story. I think there’s a lot of support in both Canada and Mexico for renegotiating NAFTA. Harmonising labour and environmental standards would go over well, for one.

[Tuckerfan]

@Sunspace

And here I was hoping…

Read the comments in the linked story. I think there’s a lot of support in both Canada and Mexico for renegotiating NAFTA. Harmonising labour and environmental standards would go over well, for one.

And then you’ll be planning on foisting a single currency on us, won’t you? You’ll call it the “Dalso” and then it’ll only be a short time before we’re all under the control of a one world government! And then, you’ll sell all of us off to the lizard alien overlords running your country, won’t you? I’m on to you bastards!

[Richard_Parker]

Both the Obama campaign and the Canadian embassy have denied the story. Indeed, Obama had denied it by the time the story you cite was written. Obviously they could just be covering it up now, but I’d like to see some evidence of that. We should all be skeptical of such a denial from a campaign, but what cause does the embassy have to deny the conversation?

ETA: My guess is that some conversation took place somewhere, but the contents of it have been mis-reported.

[Tuckerfan]

@Richard Parker

Both the Obama campaign and the Canadian embassy have denied the story. Indeed, Obama had denied it by the time the story you cite was written. Obviously they could just be covering it up now, but I’d like to see some evidence of that. We should all be skeptical of such a denial from a campaign, but what cause does the embassy have to deny the conversation?

ETA: My guess is that some conversation took place somewhere, but the contents of it have been mis-reported.

As could well be, but Obama is a politician, and while in many ways he may be a more noble person than 99% of them, he knows that in order to win, he has to get votes, and he won’t do that if he praises NAFTA.

[matt_mcl]

Prime Minister Harper may be meddling:

“You’ve got a right-wing government in Canada that is trying to help the Republicans and is out there actively interfering in this campaign,” Bob Shrum told the popular program, Meet the Press. Mr. Shrum is a top-level Democrat adviser who has had key roles in the presidential campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry.

At issue are reports that members of Mr. Harper’s prime ministerial office leaked word last week that a member of Barack Obama’s campaign told a Canadian diplomat that Mr. Obama was not serious when he raised the possibility of renegotiating the free-trade agreement.

[Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela]

I heard John McCain warning that if the US pulls out of NAFTA, Canada’s going to pull out of Afghanistan. I can’t imagine that happening - we may pull out of Afghanistan because of doubts about the validity or usefulness of the mission, but to say that our soldiers died over there for a political reasons that would be affected by a trade agreement with our closest ally and trading partner would be the kiss of death for any party.

I didn’t want the first free trade agreement with the US because I felt we gave up too much sovereignty - to hear the US want out makes me think it must be a good deal if both sides are unhappy

[Cat_Whisperer]

When I heard that Obama had said anything about scrapping NAFTA, I just rolled my eyes. Good luck with that, person of questionable international experience and judgment.

[Nanoda]

Wouldn’t bother me. Our ~50 employee company sells equipment south of the border, and applying for / making sure we follow insane free-trade rules and have all the proper current certifications is practically someone’s full time job.
Seriously, we had a 45 minute presentation on the basics of was involved, and just that had be practically begging for mercy. I’m certain only huge companies can get full benefit from it, and they have plenty of loopholes in the first place.

Plus, if it does get renegotiated, oil & gas are on the table, along with (my yet-to-be-written letters to my MP will assure) not getting (as) screwed over on cattle and lumber.

Would make for an hilarious saga of news articles, but I doubt it’ll happen.

[Cat_Whisperer]

Let’s see, what can we put on the table - the aforementioned oil and gas, of course, from the largest reserves outside of Saudi Arabia, fresh water, hydroelectric power, non-conflict diamonds, all sorts of precious metals, and, of course, Tim Horton’s coffee.

[Sunspace]

@featherlou

Let’s see, what can we put on the table - the aforementioned oil and gas, of course, from the largest reserves outside of Saudi Arabia, fresh water, hydroelectric power, non-conflict diamonds, all sorts of precious metals, and, of course, Tim Horton’s coffee.

Uranium, wheat, wood, elbow room, budget surpluses, snow…