Ottawa Sorry For Role In Obama Flap

Ottawa sorry for role in Obama flap

Aide's memo suggests NAFTA remarks just talk

Sheldon Alberts And Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service  Published: Tuesday, March 04, 2008

DALLAS and OTTAWA -Canadian officials have apolgized for an internal Canadian government memo that suggested an aide to Barack Obama assured a Canadian diplomat that the Illinois Senator's tough talk on the North American Free Trade Agreement was more a political gesture than a declaration of policy.

Hillary Clinton said the missive showed her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination was saying one thing in public while saying another behind closed doors.

In a memo first leaked to The Associated Press and obtained yesterday by Canwest News Service, a Chicago-based Canadian diplomat described a Feb. 8 meeting between Austan Goolsbee, Mr. Obama's economic advisor, and Georges Rioux, Ottawa's consul-general in Chicago.

According to the memo, Mr. Goolsbee said Mr. Obama's campaign remarks about NAFTA "should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans."

But the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa yesterday issued a statement saying "there was no intention to convey … that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private."

The statement said Canada would not interfere in the electoral process in the United States

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NAFTA has been at the heart of the Democratic campaign in Ohio, whose residents blame the trade deal for the loss of thousands of jobs.

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