Canadian PM said Hillary's Campaign did Not Try to Reassure Canadians re: NAFTA

by D. Cupples | The Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail reports:

"Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton never gave Canada any secret assurances about the future of NAFTA such as those allegedly offered by Barack Obama's campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office said Friday...."

"With the NAFTA affair swirling over the U.S. election and Canadian officials skittish about saying anything else that might influence the race, it took the PMO two days to deliver the information.

After being asked whether Canadian officials asked for — or received — any briefings from a Clinton campaign representative outlining her plans on NAFTA, a spokeswoman for the prime minister offered a response Friday.

"The answer is no, they did not," said Harper spokeswoman Sandra Buckler. (G&M)

The answer comes two days after Canadian journalist Alexander Panetta stated in an article that it was Hillary Clinton's campaign that had warned Canadian officials that anti-NAFTA campaign rhetoric was nothing for Canada to worry about.  While many Americans perceive NAFTA as having cost them jobs, Canada wants to keep NAFTA as is.

This all started because last week, Canadian broadcaster CTV reported that an Obama campaign adviser had told a Canadian official not to worry about Obama's campaign-trail attacks on NAFTA -- that it was basically just political posturing aimed at getting American workers' votes.

At first, the Obama campaign did not confirm or deny the conversation.  Later, the Canadian embassy in Washington issued a denial for Obama.  Still later, the Associated Press got a hold of a  memo which recapped the conversation that Obama's economic adviser Austan Goolsbee had with the Canadian consulate in Chicago.

Goolsbee insisted that the consulate staffer had misunderstood what Goolsbee had said.

Memeorandum has commentary.  Thanks to Political Byline for linking to this post.

Related BN-Politics Posts:

* AP Has Memo re: Obama's Adviser's NAFTA Remarks

* CTV Sticks by Obama Story

* Was Samantha Power Secretly working for Hillary?

* "New" Politics?  Obama "Punching," Wants Hillary to Concede

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