McCain in Ottawa

[maldon_road]

It seems that they are either talking to us or about us. We will hear a lot more about NAFTA (including allegations by Obama that Canada is profiting at US expense) before this election is over. And a lot more afterwards if Obama wins.

...In a lunchtime speech at Ottawa's Chateau Laurier hotel before about 400 members of the business elite, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee touted the close ties between the U.S. and Canada, and pledged to make the friendship even closer.

"The economic community we have founded, together with our alliance and the values we hold in common, have served our people for decades, and has served us well. It will fall to the next president to strengthen these ties still further, adding to the security and prosperity of all of North America," the presidential hopeful said during his 20-minute speech.

McCain emphasized the economic bonds between the two countries and, as expected, reiterated his support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying it must be defended "without equivocation in political debate."...

(full story)

McCain in Ottawa

...In the earlier Obama campaign conference call with reporters, Brown said Canada and Mexico would be forced to reopen talks on the trade deal because of their dependence on exports to the U.S.

"It's beyond the realm of any real possibility that people are going to stomp away from the table, and one of the countries is going to withdraw from NAFTA," he said. "Of course we could withdraw as a question of negotiations, but the negotiations will work."

Obama's campaign organized the conference call - with Brown, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland - to counter McCain's pro-NAFTA speech in Ottawa.

"As John McCain is going north of the border to tell Canadians that NAFTA has benefited American families, it's not clear to me why he is going to Canada to do that," said Granholm. "This unusual strategy that he is taking on, he is certainly demonstrating he is completely out of touch with the reality of the situation on the ground Michigan."

McCain "should come to Ottawa, Ohio," which lost a television tube manufacturing plant to Mexico almost five years ago because of NAFTA, Brown said. The plant's closure forced 1,100 people out of work and was a "direct outgrowth" of NAFTA, he said....

(full story)

Obama

[DogOnPorch]

I view Obama's moves on NAFTA to be that of that of an old isolationist. Maybe we're in for another one of those periods (haven't had one since the 1920s, me thinks). Perhaps not the best course of action in today's world...but Obama probably needs to play to those job loses in states where the black vote won't automatically carry him.

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Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

---Barack Obama

[maldon_road]

Americans need to do what they do best, develop new technologies with the myriad of jobs that flow from that, eg, the Internet. Let Mexico and South Korea take the rust bucket jobs.

[bush_cheney2004]

It seems that they are either talking to us or about us. We will hear a lot more about NAFTA (including allegations by Obama that Canada is profiting at US expense) before this election is over. And a lot more afterwards if Obama wins.

....and we heard a lot more during Canadian election campaigns, like in 2005:

Harper said it's time to discuss more than softwood, so he wants to talk about the future of NAFTA.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/na...rper051217.html

Politicians on both sides of the border like to use such rhetoric, even when it will amount to nothing.

[maldon_road]

Politicians on both sides of the border like to use such rhetoric, even when it will amount to nothing.

Two distinct elections of course - in the Primaries they are preaching to the choir but afterward it's the populace as a whole. That's why Obama has become less ideological on NAFTA.