Reply #54: I am not at all sure...

[stillcool]

what the real deal is here. The problem is that this information was used against Obama right before the election. While as soon as the election is over the Clinton Campaign is all of a sudden enveloped in the very thing they are accusing the Obama Campaign of. It's all very messy.

By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 26 minutes ago

TORONTO - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff said someone in Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign gave Canada back-channel assurances that her harsh words about the North American Free Trade Agreement were for political show, according to a report by the Canadian Press.


The report comes just days after a Canadian government memo stated Barack Obama's senior economic adviser told Canadian officials that the Illinois senator's own comments about NAFTA were for "political positioning." The release of that memo helped Clinton defeat Obama decisively in Tuesday's Democratic primary in Ohio, where the trade treaty is unpopular.

On Wednesday, the Canadian Press quoted an unidentified source as saying that Ian Brodie, Harper's chief of staff, made the comment last week to a crew for Canada's CTV television network during a press gathering to discuss Canada's budget. According to a person with knowledge of the incident, the source was a CTV journalist.

The Canadian Press story said a CTV reporter asked Brodie about remarks by Clinton and Obama that they would seek to renegotiate NAFTA.

"He said someone from Clinton's campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt. ... That someone called us and told us not to worry," the journalist quoted Brodie as saying, according to the report.
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"Ian Brodie is alleged to have made an offhand comment about a rumor to a reporter. He does not recall saying it," Sandra Buckler, a spokeswoman for Harper, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Some Democrats, as well as Canadian opposition parties, have accused Harper's Conservative government of meddling in the U.S. primary elections — in which Obama is in a close race with Clinton for the Democratic Party's nomination.

In Ottawa, Canadian opposition parties demanded Brodie be fired.

Harper told lawmakers in Parliament that the government would investigate the entire affair, referring to the alleged leaks about both the Clinton and Obama campaigns.

"We're going to investigate this entire matter and take whatever action that is deemed necessary based on the facts that we are able to discover," Harper said, a day after he called the release of the memo unfair and possibly illegal.

Canada's New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton blasted the alleged leaks.

"There can be no doubt about it: The leak from within the Canadian government has had an impact now on the American elections," Layton said. "That is about the worst thing a country could do to another country — to have an effect on their democratic process."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080307/ap_on_re_ca/canada_democrats_trade