Economy and environment on agenda as Obama visits Canada

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Published: February 20, 2009

OTTAWA: President Barack Obama charted a delicate course with Canada on Thursday, using the first foreign trip of his presidency to ease tensions over trade policy, climate change and the war in Afghanistan — all the while basking in his celebrity status in a nation where his approval ratings are high.
The quick day trip marked a striking shift in United States-Canada relations from those under President George W. Bush. If Canadians were no fans of Bush, their conservative leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, found in him a kindred philosophical spirit.
Obama, on the other hand, is so popular here that he used a news conference on Thursday to thank Canadian volunteers who crossed the border to help his campaign. At the same time, he sought to soothe a skeptical Harper on policy matters like whether to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement — Obama suggested doing so as a candidate but has since recalibrated his stance — as well as a "Buy America" provision in the $787 billion economic recovery package he just signed into law.
"I provided Prime Minister Harper an assurance that I want to grow trade, not contract it," Obama said during the brief, four-question news conference with Harper in the grand Gothic-style center block of the Canadian Parliament. "And I don't think that there was anything in the recovery package that was adverse to that goal."
The prime minister responded by giving the president a bit of a lecture, remarking that Canada's stimulus package "actually removed duties on some imported goods."

"If we pursue stimulus packages the goal of which is only to benefit ourselves, or to benefit ourselves at the expense of others, we will deepen the world recession, not solve it," Harper said.
The exchange was an awkward moment in a visit that was intended by both leaders to emphasize their countries' friendship and longstanding bonds. After slipping up by nearly referring to Ottawa as Iowa, Obama went on to say that he had a Canadian brother-in-law and that two of his top aides were Canadian.
Harper, for his part, responded to a question about border security by saying that "threats to the United States are threats to Canada." It was a powerful sound bite that appeared to be the final word of the news conference, until Obama jumped in to get one last word of his own, saying, "We have no doubt about Canada's commitment to security in the United States."
The leaders announced what they called "a clean energy dialogue" to work out their differences on environmental issues, among the thorniest between the United States and Canada, and engage in joint research on technology to reduce carbon emissions.
The United States is the biggest importer of Canadian oil, and Harper has been trying to win an agreement to exempt Canada's vast tracts of oil sands, which may contain up to 1.73 billion barrels of recoverable oil bound into sand and clay, from any new American environmental regulations. Obama is under intense pressure from environmentalists to resist that effort.
"We're not going to solve these problems overnight," the president said.
His statements were just ambiguous enough to satisfy both American environmentalists and the Canadian oil industry. Dave Collyer, the president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, called the announcement "an important framework that strikes the right balance and sets a pragmatic approach." Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, the director of the Canada program at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, called the dialogue "a logical first step," adding, "What we heard him say is that addressing global warming is a top priority."
Regarding Afghanistan, Obama said he "did not press the prime minister on any additional commitments" of troops, despite his own decision this week to increase the American presence there by 17,000. In his first public comments on the troop increase, Obama said he had ordered it "because I felt it was necessary to stabilize the situation there in advance of the elections coming up."
If Obama is not entirely simpatico with Harper, he may have more in common with Canada's opposition leader, Michael Ignatieff of the Liberal Party. Ignatieff is an author (like Obama) and a former director of a human rights center at Harvard, where he worked alongside Samantha Power, who advised Obama on foreign policy during his campaign. The two had a brief meeting at the airport on Obama's way out of town.
By taking his first foreign trip to Canada, Obama is following in a tradition for United States presidents, including Ronald Reagan, who made Canada his first visit and, four years later, charmed some Canadians and horrified others by singing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" on St. Patrick's Day with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
Obama, by contrast, did not have to sing to attract attention; from the moment he stepped off Air Force One and into the snowy Ottawa landscape on Thursday, he commanded nonstop television coverage. Thousands of people stood outside the Parliament buildings just to catch a glimpse of him; he obliged with a quick wave.
Indeed, if there was any complaint about Obama's visit, it was that he had planned no public appearance with average Canadians. The White House fixed that at the end of the day, however, as Obama made a surprise stop at the ByWard Market, a renovated farmers' market in an historical stretch of Ottawa. He bought a key ring with Canadian dollars, then tried to pay for two maple leaf cookies, but his money was refused. And at a kiosk outside the market, he picked up a Beaver Tail, the fried, flattened doughnut that served as the prototype for the Obama Tail, which a local bakery had named after him.
He politely avoided eating the cholesterol-laden confection, promising to do so once he got back to the White House.
Ian Austen contributed reporting from Ottawa, and David Stout from Washington. .