By Jesse Russell
The plot thickens it what has come to be known as "NAFTAgate." The CBC is reporting that what was originally reported by the CTV as a meeting called between Sen. Barack Obama's economic adviser and the Canadian Embassy in Chicago was inaccurate (view the report here)
A few weeks earlier Canadian diplomats in Chicago had pleaded for a meeting with this man, Austan Goolsbee, an adviser to Barack Obama. Later the Canadian diplomats told Ottawa there was no need to worry about NAFTA. Goolsbee, they reported, had said that any anti-NAFTA campaign messages should be viewed as more of a "political positioning" then a clear articulation of policy plans. After the Ohio debate sources suggest that someone in Stephen Harper's government decided to leak their own version of Obama's views.
Within hours CTV news was reporting Obama's people had phoned the Canadian government, not the other way around. The report also said, incorrectly, that an Obama operative had warned Michael Wilson, the Canadian ambassador in Washington, telling him not to take Obama's rhetoric seriously. Effectively, the story suggested Obama was lying to the Ohio voters...
...and...
Meanwhile, the Canadian Embassy reviewed the diplomatic cable, acknowledged it may have misrepresented the Obama adviser, apologized to Obama, and issued a blanket denial, but too late. Today a senior campaign official told the CBC that the diplomatic cable did indeed present a false picture of the Obama adviser's views and the official predicted the political leak will damage relations with an Obama White House.
"Why is Canada meddling in the internal affairs of the United States?" asked the official, "To provide such a false account at this juncture, on the eve of a crucial election, is not an accident and it is really, really stupid."
Privately some Canadian officials agree with that. This afternoon in Ottawa the Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a new statement, this one saying that none of their diplomats ever meant to suggest in anyway that Barack Obama says one thing in public and something else in private.
