O in Canada

Barack Obama took his first foreign trip yesterday, and though if you blinked you might have missed his six-hour jaunt across the border to Canada, he and Canadian leader Stephen Harper talked about a number of important issues.

The main topic of the meet-and-greet was trade - NAFTA and other related issues. Obama wants to have what are currently side agreements on labor and the environment folded into the main body of NAFTA. Harper though is reluctant to go reopening the trade agreement, which took years to negotiate in the first place. And frankly Obama shouldn't be so eager to crack NAFTA open either since many Canadians feel that they got a raw deal in the original agreement.

Past those discussions the two leaders also talked about the need to streamline the process of goods crossing the border - something they say is holding back US-Canadian trade at this point. The environment also made it into the discussion, though they fell far short of even agreeing to talks about a common US-Canadian approach to environmental regulations. Canada is looking to become a larger supplier of energy to the United States, but there is growing concern over Canada's main source of oil, the Oil Sands of Alberta - getting oil from these sands (which is more like a gooey tar) is a complex, and dirty, process. There is concern from environmentalists on both sides of the border about the cost to nature of getting oil from the Sands.

One topic the two leaders skirted was Canada's troop commitment in Afghanistan. Canada is one of the main non-US contributors of troops, but they are planning to withdraw by 2011, just as Obama is lobbying for an increase the number of boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Canada has felt that their sacrifice in Afghanistan hasn't really been appreciated - 108 Canadians have lost their lives so far. Obama was quick to thank Canada for its service and sacrifice, something that seemed to go a long way towards paving over some of those hurt feelings. Past that Obama said talk about extending the Canadian mission didn't come up.

Harper wasn't the only Canadian leader to get face time with the new American President. Obama also met with Canada's Governor-General Michaelle Jean (the Governor-General is the Queen of England's official representative in the Canadian government, since Elizabeth II is still technically the head of state in Canada - just check their money if you don't believe me). Jean is originally from Haiti, so she and Obama spent much of their brief meeting discussing the dreadful conditions in the island nation - the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

When he arrived in Ottawa, several thousand cheering Canadians greeted Obama. George W. Bush was also greeted by thousands during his last visit to Canada, only they were protesting, rather than cheering, and making some rather un-Canadian hand gestures at the president. Just to show he had a good sense of humor about it though, Bush thanked those Canadians who waved to him using “all five fingers.”