today Obama had an important interview with Peter Mansbridge for the CBC in Canada.
Here's a link to the video: lots of great questions and answers. Obama knows his facts, diplomacy and Mansbridge had a lot of tough questions for him. This should be an interesting visit.
my favorite quote Mansbridge: "I know you carry Canada on your belt. That Blackberry is a Canadian invention"
psst to Mansbridge 'you forgot to mention that Dr. Naismith invented basketball in Canada and that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in Canada too'
more on the flip.
Anyway, Obama is visiting Canada this thursday. It's an important visit since America is Canada's largest trading partner, and Canada is the largest source of foreign energy and comedy for America. This is a vital economic relationship for both countries. Canada is currently lead by Stephen Harper, a conservative from Western Canada who has been very pro-Alberta oil sands energy and is regarded by many Canadians as Bush-lite. Truth is he is pro-business above all else. Harpers government has been weakened recently with the near loss of confidence vote back in December. He has survived that with a mini-stimulus budget. But I suspect he will be forced to take bolder action if he wants any concessions from Obama.
There are a lot of big issues to be discussed:
Stimulus, Energy, Carbon caps & smart energy grids (all related)
Afghanistan
Softwood lumber
Fishing rights
Arctic sovereignty/claims for oil/gas
Alaska pipeline
Ag subsidies/tariffs
NAFTA (should we have a bilateral agreement or a trilateral agreement for North America, or both?)
Border issues
Gay marriage (lol, sry had to pretend that Harper would bring that up for discussion)
Immigration & Tax issues (both ways)
anyway I highly recommend listening to this interview and watching what shakes out after his visit to Canada on Thursday.
Personally I hope he can talk some sense into Harper on energy and also meets privately with the opposition Liberal Leader, the NDP leader and the BQ leader.