Critical meeting with Obama

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a key bilateral meeting Sunday afternoon following the APEC summit in Hawaii, at a critical juncture in the Canada-U.S. relationship.

It was uncertain whether Harper would score some coveted face time with Obama after the North American leaders’ summit — to be held this weekend in Honolulu with Mexican President Felipe Calderon — was cancelled due to the tragic death of a Mexican minister in a helicopter crash in that country.

A helicopter crash Friday, in bad weather, approximately 70 kilometres south of Mexico City killed Interior Minister Francisco Blake Mora, and other Mexican government officials.

In a statement, Harper said he was profoundly saddened to learn of the death and that he and his wife Laureen “offer their heartfelt condolences to the families of Secretary Mora and the other officials killed today, to Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and to all citizens of Mexico.”

The accident, while a huge blow to Mexico, threatened to scrap any private meeting time Harper might have had with Obama this weekend, as the prime minister looks to address a growing number of irritants in the cross-border relationship.

The Obama administration’s decision on Thursday to delay a final ruling on the Keystone XL oilsands pipeline until after the November 2012 presidential election is just the latest in a series of prickly issues in the threadbare Canada-U.S. relationship.

The U.S. president held bilateral talks with a number of global leaders on the sidelines of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, which wraps up Sunday.

Obama is slated to hold tete-a-tetes with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. Harper originally didn’t have a separate bilateral meeting planned with Obama before the so-called Three Amigos summit was cancelled.

Harper will need a deft diplomatic touch to address a growing number of cross-border issues that are sparking more questions about the strength of Canada-U.S. ties.

The U.S. government’s decision to examine rerouting the Keystone XL pipeline — which would carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from northern Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas — could postpone a final ruling for 12 to 18 months, and potentially longer if a new environmental assessment is needed.

Canada and the U.S. are also looking to finalize the Beyond the Border initiative, a bilateral trade and security agreement designed to better co-ordinate intelligence-sharing at the border and streamline cross-border trade.

The Harper government originally said the plan would be ready by the end of summer, but details still haven’t been unveiled.

Also, Canadians and Mexicans travelling by air or boat to the United States now face a new $5.50 surcharge implemented this month by the U.S government — which Harper has attacked as a bad policy designed to bail the U.S. out of a huge debt on the backs of Canadians and other visitors.

There has also been some tension between Canada and the U.S. in recent weeks after the White House included new Buy American provisions in Obama’s $447-billion job creation bill that could prevent Canadian companies from bidding on billions of dollars of infrastructure contracts.





“Perhaps the Harper government has failed to convince the Americans to go in the direction they wanted,” said Christopher Sands, a specialist in Canada-U.S. relations at the Hudson Institute, a think-tank in Washington D.C.

“There’s something in the air here where the Obama administration, as it heads into re-election, is in a couple of its significant gestures sending a signal that the way that Washington views things hasn’t changed,” he added.

“And that ought to be frustrating to the Harper government, I would think, because they put a lot of effort into not only telling the Canadians things had changed, but building these bilateral things.”

On the Keystone XL, Sands argues the White House simply “messed up” and is now in a serious jam over an issue that threatens to derail Obama’s re-election hopes.

Environmentalists were looking for an issue to grasp on to, he said, and the pipeline seems to offer something for several green groups because there are concerns about land, air, water and climate change.

“It’s just a sign of how badly the president is concerned about his re-election hopes, that he can’t afford to upset his constituency,” Sands said. “The delay we’re now stuck with is because the president mishandled the file.”

Harper and other Pacific Rim leaders are in Honolulu for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, where the 21-member group — including Canada, the United States, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Russia — will work towards greater economic integration in the region and eliminating trade barriers.

APEC’s partners account for more than 80 per cent of Canada’s total trade in merchandise and more than half of global gross domestic product. Two-way trade between Canada and APEC economies totalled more than $650 billion in 2010, compared to roughly $375 billion in 1994.

The Conservative government’s main objectives for the APEC summit include: promoting Canada’s international trade agenda and advancing regional economic integration; championing Canadian commercial interests in the region and showcasing the country to world leaders and senior executives from APEC economies; and advancing Canadian foreign policy goals such as emergency preparedness and open governance.