Canadian Crossing

Canada gets short shrift in U.S. foreign policy debate

Foreign policy for a country should consist of every country outside its borders. But if you watched the foreign policy debate Friday night between Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Canada was not in the room.

True, there was time spent on the economy (39 minutes), and that did cut into the time. But the debate centered on current hot-button issues, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran.

But trade, specifically trade with Canada, did come up in the Democratic Party debates, most notably between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). The reopening of NAFTA, or the proposed reopening, was brought up earlier this year.

And Sen. McCain has been to Ottawa, Canada's capital, earlier this year as well.

As a reminder, Canada is the largest trading partner of the United States, and the U.S. gets more oil from Canada than any other country.

And since Canada has been ignored by the U.S., unless it's Afghanistan (where Canadian troops are), Iraq, (no Canadian troops), or border protection. The next U.S. president needs to do more with Canada.

Yes, the BlackBerry is Canadian

Whether you are "lucky" to have a boss who requires you to carry a BlackBerry or you actually own one on your own, you may know a lot of things about your BlackBerry. But you may not know it was born in Canada.

BlackBerry was created by Research In Motion in Waterloo, Ontario located in the southern part of the province.

This in itself isn't news. But John McCain's domestic policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin gave credit to McCain for the invention of the BlackBerry. But Holtz-Eakin wasn't aware that this was impossible given the birthright of the BlackBerry.

But thanks to the uproar over the incident, many more people now know that the BlackBerry is Canadian.

Canada's next federal election is October 14

The rumors have been confirmed: Stephen Harper has asked for Parliament to be dissolved. We are having a federal election on October 14.

PM Harper of the Conservative Party currently has a minority government. In the last election, the Conservatives won 124 seats to the Liberals 103.

The Liberals, under the leadership of Stephane Dion, are running on a platform featuring a "carbon tax" to reduce energy use in the country.

For a more detailed analysis, including an examination of how the Canadian election affects U.S. politics, feel free to read this essay that I wrote for my day job.

I would assume that C-SPAN will also air CBC's coverage that night. If that is so, it will help give a broader perspective. I will have my own take here at the Canadian Crossing.