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In Canada, Clinton Co-Chair/Fundraiser Downplays Candidate's NAFTA Rhetoric

April 18, 2008 5:07 PM

At Toronto's Empire Club of Canada this week, two former US ambassadors to Canada -- one Democrat and one Republican -- debated how concerned Canadians should be that the Democratic candidates are serious about re-negotiating NAFTA.

It was the Democrat, James Blanchard, who told Canadians not to worry, according to Canadian press accounts. 

Blanchard, former Governor of Michigan, is a Michigan state co-chair of Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign, one of her major "HillRaiser" fundraisers, and served as US Ambassador to Canada during the administration of former President Bill Clinton.

Hillary Clinton has pledged to voters that she will force Canada to re-negotiate the deal or the US will opt out of it.

"I've said that I will renegotiate NAFTA, so obviously we'd have to say to Canada and Mexico that that's exactly what we're going to do," Clinton said during a recent debate. "We will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it.”

But Blanchard seemed to pooh-pooh that bold statement, telling attendees that Democrats are more concerned about China and Mexico than they are Canada.

''Their concern is job loss or unfairness in dealing with countries that have low wage and labor standards and low environmental standards,'' Blanchard said, according to the Canadian Press. ''I have not seen anything that would constitute a threat to trade with Canada."

The story said that Blanchard this week "played down her antipathy toward the free-trade deal, saying she has visited Canada many times and understands the country well."

Conversely, the Republican, former Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci -- who served as US Ambassador to Canada for President George W. Bush -- said "there ought to be some concern here in Canada" because both Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama have "been making some pretty strong statements" against trade agreements such as NAFTA.

The sincerity of the Democrats' opposition to various trade deals has emerged as an issue in the primary season, as the candidates pursue labor union voters in industrial states such as Pennsylvania, which will hold its contest this Tuesday.

An Obama economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, met with Canadian officials and left the impression he was assuring them not to take Obama's anti-NAFTA rhetoric too seriously.

Clinton, for her part, has claimed to have always opposed NAFTA even though she help promote the trade deal in 1993.

Her campaign adviser, Mark Penn, met with Colombian officials to help promote the Colombian trade deal that Clinton herself opposes. Her husband also supports the deal and was paid $800,000 by a pro-trade Colombian company in 2005 to deliver speeches in which he promoted it.

When Blanchard resigned as Bill Clinton's ambassador to Canada, the Montreal Gazette reported that he "helped pave the way for the so-called "concessions" on labor and environmental issues that gave Prime Minister Chretien a face-saving excuse for dropping his opposition to NAFTA."

Blanchard eventually became a lobbyist, and has represented Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cisco Systems, and Qualcomm. As a HillRaiser he has committed to raising at least $250,000 for Clinton's campaign.

-- jpt

April 18, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (164)

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I see no one is outsources jobs in America it's the people who out source themselves from the rest of the real world that beleive in one nation under God. So if no one believes in unity there will be no jobs left You make your own bread or you can move somewhere else where there is beleivers

Posted by: gg | Apr 21, 2008 11:22:56 AM

Sen Clinton tells the Indian government, that she supports the continuane of outsourcing

jobs to India! I think the voters should be outraged that any politician is for outsourcing premium American jobs.

Remember NAFTA anybody.

Posted by: jld1959 | Apr 21, 2008 2:40:31 AM

If someone doesn't give a source for their accusations, don't give it any credence. Anyone can make up anything.

Posted by: jkr | Apr 20, 2008 6:33:22 PM

scape goating again

Posted by: gg | Apr 20, 2008 4:06:05 PM

scape goating again

Posted by: gg | Apr 20, 2008 4:05:59 PM

Pastor Wright Trouble for Obama?
Ayers, Trouble for Obama?
Bitter, trouble for Obama?
Gun-toting trouble for Obama?
Michelle, Trouble for Obama?
Farrakhan, Trouble for Obama?
Peru Free trade agreement, Trouble for Obama?
Rezko, Trouble for Obama?
Sinclair, Trouble for Obama?
The Black Panthers trouble for Obama?
Meeks trouble for Obama?
Malley trouble for Obama?
Auchi trouble for Obama?
Khalidi trouble for Obama?
McPeaks trouble for Obama?
NAFTA trouble for Obama?
Debates, Trouble for Obama?

Posted by: concerned | Apr 20, 2008 3:53:54 PM

Eric above says that McCain is a war hero. That doesn't give him the experience to be president.

And what kind of a war hero would have such disrespect and lack of loyalty to the troops that he is against the new GI bill that was introduced in the Senate?

Posted by: AnnieEddie | Apr 20, 2008 1:24:19 PM


The NAFTA issue is only the tip of the iceburg. Hillary Clinton is the founder and chairman of the Senate India Caucus. One of her biggest donors, Sant Singh Chatwal, cited that Clinton’s India Caucus has vowed to raise $5 million dollars for her from companies that outsource American Jobs to India.

Sound familiar, $5 million, India raises $5 million for Hillary, Hillary loans $5 million to her primary campaign. Doe’s that mean the India Caucus provided $5 for Hillary’s primary campaign? If so it was a bad investment.

In the February 2005 issue of The India Review / On a recent trip to India, Senator Clinton laid to rest India’s fears that outsourcing American jobs would end. On that trip Senator Clinton said, “OUTSOURCING of AMERICAN Jobs will continue”, and they have.

The people of Pennsylvania have supported Clinton and she has outsourced their jobs. The people of Pennsylvania vote for her and she rewards India. Somebody is being conned. She diverts our attention with little hissy fits about trivia that doesn’t matter while her husband Bill and manager Penn are carrying bags of money out the back door.

Posted by: John | Apr 20, 2008 11:02:26 AM

MC CAIN IS A WAR HERO..... 2008

Posted by: ERIC | Apr 20, 2008 8:58:26 AM

YOU DO NO GAIN ANY GOOD THING BY RISING CAPITAL GAIN....... THE TAXES DO NO MAKE A ECONOMIC GET BETTER CREATE JOBS AND A FRIENDLY WAY FOR INVESTMENT DOES.

CREATE MORE JOBS. NO MORE TAX....

Posted by: ERIC | Apr 20, 2008 8:51:58 AM

WHO IS SAYING THAT ALL YOUNG VOTER ARE FOR OBAMA IS NOT TRUTH THE MEDIA THINK THAT YOUNG PEOPLE ARE STUPID..... THEY WILL SEE THE DIFFERENT AFTER TUESDAY THERE POLLS HAVING CLINTON UP BY 19 POINTS........ THE MEDIA LIKE CNN,. MSNBC THINKS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE STUPID.......

Posted by: ERIC | Apr 20, 2008 8:45:19 AM

2008 OBAMA NO CHANCE

Posted by: ERIC | Apr 20, 2008 8:37:42 AM

Is Obama really believing what some of his supporters think that he is a deity in a cult? That he can talk in riddles and nobody has the right to question him? Why is he so unable to answer any question? why does he have to retreat and then come back with an explanation or a whine?

Posted by: libre | Apr 20, 2008 8:18:45 AM

Reverend Wright Trouble for Obama?
Ayers, Ttouble for Obama?
Bitter, trouble for Obama?
Michelle, Trouble for Obama?
Farrakahn, Trouble for Obama?
Peru Free trade agreement, Trouble for Obama?
Rezko, Trouble for Obama?
Sinclair, Trouble for Obama?
Debates,Trouble for Obama?

Posted by: libre | Apr 20, 2008 8:17:11 AM

Boy, Hillary put quite a bit of spin on that word! She'll do anything to take the heat off of her and Bill. Bill and Hillary both supported NAFTA, it's obvious from her schedule that was released. Now, Bill and her campaign strategist Penn are working with the Columbian government to push through a trade deal that she supposedly is against. The people of Pennsylvania have every right to be "bitter", but it's because of people like the Clintons who have cost them their jobs. The Columbians have paid Bill $800,000 for his work to promote the trade agreement If you expect people to actually believe you don't support the agreement, why would you be okay taking the $800,000. And if that $800,000 is in your joint account, and you've "loaned" your campaign $5 million, how can people be sure that the Columbians aren't paying for her campaign.

People in upstate New York State were promised that if she were elected to the Senate, she would bring thousands of jobs there. Well, no jobs ever came, and when she was questioned about it at the MSN debate, her lame response was that when she made those promises, she thought Al Gore would be elected President!!!! Take my word for it Pennsylvania Voters, she could care less about you…she's telling you what you want to hear so that you'll vote for her, then you can forget any lame promises she has made. Jobs are still leaving Upstate at an alarming rate. She can't even handle one State, how in the world can she think she can run an entire country. Please Pennsylvania… don't let her scam you like she did the NY Senate voters and OH and TX primary voters with lies about NAFTA.

Posted by: John | Apr 20, 2008 7:35:12 AM

Are you mad as a wet hen yet Ohio? Hillary stood up there for days and said, "If any member of my campaign had gone to a foreign government and said, wink, wink, don't worry about NAFTA." Well, guess what, IT WAS HILLARY'S MICHIGAN CO CHAIR WHO DID THAT DIRTY LITTLE DEED. Obama's staffer never said anything different to the Canadians in Chicago then Obama says in public and the Canadian government confirmed it. Hillary won Ohio based on that lie and she knew it was a lie when she was telling it. She claims she won Texas too, but she didn't. Obama beat her by five delegates. Bill and Hillary claimed NAFTA as the single greatest achievement of the Clinton administration. People who were present at the time said Mrs. Clinton wanted to do her healthcare plan first, but that she didn't at the time object to NAFTA itself. When she says she was always against NAFTA, that's another lie as her White House schedule proves. She gave presentations to sell it and there are people who were there who say she was 100% for it. Even though Bill took almost a million dollars to help push Columbian Free Trade deal through American congress, we're supposed to believe that Hillary really doesn't like it. How many lies will people buy? Are you listening PA? Your jobs went foreign thanks to the hard work of the Clintons. Do you still think the Clinton years were great? It just took a while for the effects of their laws to really impact your lives, but they set it all in motion.

Posted by: karela | Apr 20, 2008 4:01:31 AM

The democrats have added new voters ................FOR THE PRIMARY.

Many will vote for Mc Cain or not vote.

We go thru this EVERY election cycle.

These Obama lovers think that people ONLY signed up for Obama. If that was true, then Obama would have won easily by now.

Believe me, Obama will never win the general election. All he has is 20 years olds -who never have shown up in great numbers in the general election.

Never have, never will.

If Obama gets the nomination, Mc Cain will win the election .

Posted by: tomdavie | Apr 20, 2008 1:59:39 AM

HILLARY WILL LIE FROM DAY ONE.

Posted by: jbate | Apr 20, 2008 1:52:49 AM

I moved to Michigan in 1990 just in time to see Governor Jim Blanchard get beat by a little known State Senator named John Engler. I remember Blanchard’s brilliant TV ads extolling his prison boot camps featuring white drill sergeants yelling in the faces of black inmates. He also had an expensive looking jet-copper he liked to fly around the state in that Engler made an issue of. Not surprisingly, there was a low voter turnout in Detroit and Engler won a stunning upset victory.

Then came the fiscal scandal in the Michigan House of Representatives. The Democrats had been stealing money for years. That gave the Republicans control of state government for the next ten years. Most of the Democrats that were left didn’t really care. As long as their seats were safe, all was right with the world. Bill Clinton was a much better politician than his friend Jim Blanchard. Bill even remembers he is a Democrat most of the time and he knew to treat black voters like people not inmates in the Democratic column.

There was also a police helicopter that flew around the state capitol neighborhood all night long looking for open-air drug sales. It was the tail end of the bipartisan “war on drugs”. During the Blanchard administration, there was almost a dollar-for-dollar shift of money for higher education to new prisons in the state budget. Recently, the state lowered many of the sentences handed out in the era for drug crimes mostly because the state couldn’t pay for it any longer. Tuition was raised and many students borrowed more student loans.

Now, the Michigan economy is once again at “Rodger and Me” like depths. Maybe if the state had invested and valued its motivated young people, rather than treating them like “revenue sources”, people would want to start or move business to Michigan. And the policies of Jim Blanchard, like his tepid governor friend from Wisconsin Tony Earl, hang in my memory in the Republican frames they originally came in.

Posted by: James Knell, Chicago, IL | Apr 20, 2008 1:16:45 AM

I just cannot understand why people would vote for a bold liar like Hillary. Go Obama GO!

Posted by: leighg1 | Apr 20, 2008 1:14:48 AM

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