Canadian Gov’t: No Intent To Cast Doubt On Obama’s NFTA Opposition

Mon, March 03, 2008 - 2:35 PM

Florida and Michigan might not have a say in the Democratic presidential primary.

But the Canadian government apparently is regretting saying too much.

It has just responded to Hillary Clinton’s claims about alleged signals from the Obama camp to Canadian diplomats that could cast doubt on whether the Illinois senator's public opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement is genuine.

Here is the statement by the Canadian government:

“The Canadian Embassy and our Consulates General regularly contact those involved in all of the Presidential campaigns and, periodically, report on these contacts to interested officials. In the recent report produced by the Consulate General 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.”
“We deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect,” the statement says.

At issue is an internal Canadian memo that the Associated Press has described as written by a diplomat regarding a meeting last month between Austan Goulsbee, Obama’s economic adviser, and George Rioux, the Canadian consul general in Chicago.

According to the AP, the memo said Goulsbee told Rioux that Obama’s campaign remarks about NAFTA “should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans.”

Hillary Clinton -- fighting to hold a slim lead in Ohio – has seized on the Canadian memo to criticize Obama for giving speeches “that are very critical of NAFTA … and then we find out that your chief economic adviser has gone to a foreign government and basically done the old wink-wink – ‘Don’t pay attention, this is just political rhetoric’ – I think that raises serious questions.

But the Obama camp has repeatedly denied the campaign has sent Canada conflicting signals on the candidate’s views on trade.

And now, the Canadian government is saying its consulate general did not intend to produce a memo conveying that idea.

-- Billy House