Obama's Canadian enemies

[tabatha]

Barack Obama's political momentum, seemingly irresistible a week ago, was sideswiped by false reports from sources within the Canadian government that he was being two-faced about Nafta, which especially hurt the candidate in free-trade hating Ohio.

In Canada, the whole story is emerging as a major political scandal. This sort of interference into another country's elections is not just a huge diplomatic faux pas, but also a deep affront to democratic norms.

"It is not in the interest of the government of Canada, and the way the leak was executed ... was blatantly unfair to Senator Obama and his campaign," prime minister Stephen Harper admitted to Parliament. Harper is promising an internal investigation, while opposition parties are arguing that the affair calls for a full-scale probe by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

From news accounts, there seems to have been two separate leaks. The initial and less damaging leak came from an off-the-record statement by Ian Brodie, the prime minister's chief of staff, who sought to reassure reporters that anti-Nafta rhetoric coming from Hillary Clinton's camp wasn't serious. Brodie's account was then amplified and turned into an anti-Obama smear by a false account given in a diplomatic memo, whose origin is still unknown. Bowing to opposition pressure, Harper has promised to investigate both leaks.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jeet_heer/2008/03/obamas_canadian_enemies.html

[islandmkl]

1. kind of the old 'seeking forgiveness is easier than asking permission' kind of a deal...

wasn't it?

[daleo]

2. The privately run CTV network played a big role, too

From my understanding, Brodie's off the cuff remark to some reporters was more about Clinton's campaign than Obabma's. The CTV news report gave it the Obama spin. I don't know if that was intentional, or a screwup by the news writer who did the story (that seems hard to believe, though). Neo-conservatives are shot through the media and the political class, and it can be hard to disentangle their motives and behaviors sometimes.

It's an interesting commentary at the link.

[papau]

3. the right wing Globe and Mail is feeding you unsourced info - may as well use Fox

[Spazito]

6. The Globe and Mail is "right wing"? ROFL!

That will be mighty big news to the right wing in Canada, they despise it as a left wing rag. You obviously know nothing about the news outlets in Canada and it shows.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. "Blame Canada!"

[SeattleGirl]

5. Ed Schultz had a member of the New Democratic Party in Canada on today.

This guy is really pissed off at the Prime Minister for interfering in US elections, and has been telling him (the PM) he needs to out and out apologize for what he did. I agree.