Canada needs open access to the US markets. Traditionally the democrats have been against an open market and certainly have always taken a strong measures against business in Canada when it succeeds in the American market. Hillary Clinton would have been a better Democrat for Canada simply because her husband is not an economic moron and understands that the US needs an open market relationship with Canada.
Barak Obama meanwhile has made negative comments about free trade - that alone should ring alarm bells in Canada. I can understand why federally the conversation with the government by one of his campaign senior people was made public, Canada can not afford a year of a campaign where it looks like its main market may close. I presume that Barak Obama is not dumb enough to do any protectionist stuff beyond the petty political requirements of the status quo.
I find it odd that there were people in Canada, supporters of Obama, that were upset when it came out that Barak Obama was not opposed to free trade and would not be seeking the economic death of Canada. I can only assume that these people think Canada is defacto already part of the US and that they wanted their liberal choice for president to win.
The only man that was running for president in the US that is supportive of a better trading relationship between Canada and the US - the single biggest trading relationship in the world - is John McCain. McCain is smart enough to know free trade has done more to end poverty hunger globally than all the government programs of all time. He also knows that more free trade will raise the standard of living of the poorest Americans and make more Mexicans middle class and reduce illegal immigration.
As Canadians, internal issues in the US are not important to us directly. The thing that matters to us is how difficult it is to move people, money and goods across the border.
The last seven years of George Bush have seen the most reckless and badly run government the US has seen in history. Bush has effectively destroyed the US dollar and made Americans poorer faster than anytime since the great depression.
Canada needs a reasonable long term stability in the exchange rate between the two countries. For three decades Canadians were at fault for devaluing our dollar to avoid investing in industry and better infrastructure. We deserved a low dollar because we refused to become more productive. But in the last seven years it has all been the US - one economically illiterate man in the Whitehouse is hamstringing the world's biggest economy.
Bush was foolhardy when he chose to invade Iraq - there was no pressing need for it, the Iraqis could have survived another decade under the brutal and horrific torture that was Saddam Hussein. He was right to go into Afghanistan, but he should have made sure that the country was stable before embarking on another adventure.
In hindsight his father looks brilliant for not going further than liberating Kuwait.
No matter who wins in November, the US is going to in Iraq for at least another decade or two.
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