How Canada Sees Obama
WALLER, HAROLDM.
Counting on a Convergence of Interests How Sees Obama By Harold M. Waller Montreal Canadians welcomed Barack Obama's election, despite being somewhat apprehensive about campaign...
...None of the above is meant to imply that Ottawa can take anything for granted with regard to Canada-US...
...The truly interesting question will be the extent to which his philosophy leads to the Canadianizing of U.S...
...during an Obama Administration...
...Without belaboring the point, it can be argued that the achievement of Obama’s policy goals would result in a U.S...
...roughly $95,000 U.S...
...Auto travelers between the two countries, for example, will soon have to carry a passport (air travelers have been required to do so for about a year...
...Some of the key features Americans can expect over the coming four years are higher taxes on high-income earners, expansion of government involvement in health care, and more government intervention in the economy...
...Even if Canadians understood that Senator John McCain did not simply represent a third Bush term, they greatly preferred a fresh start...
...has any real problems with NAFTA, they are more likely to involve Mexico than Canada...
...As the former Canadian ambassador to Washington, Derek H. Burney, has pointed out, if the U.S...
...Essentially a sort of negative income tax, it provides a fairly easy way to distribute a government benefit to them...
...See my “Lessons of Canada’s Medicare,” NL, September/October 2007...
...relations will not be a priority when Obama enters the Oval Office...
...Relations were strained during the Bush years largely because of immense disdain here for the Iraq War...
...Curiously, much of the emphasis of analysts here in the immediate aftermath of the U.S...
...To be sure, this singlepayer plan has not been an unqualified success...
...And in the big picture, the trouble is not NAFTA at all but China and the American companies that are outsourcing work to other countries offering cheap labor...
...Still, Harper will need to remind Obama that Canada is the largest buyer of U.S...
...Harold M. Waller, who writes for the NL on Canadian affairs, is aprofessor of political science atMcGill University...
...Other issues where bilateral cooperation is possible include antiterrorist measures, resolving the global financial crisis, protecting the environment, and dealing with the auto industry...
...trading partners and helped to intensify the Great Depression...
...On the other hand it does provide basic care for everyone in the country and is seen by many Canadians as a key element of their national identity...
...The new U.S...
...The reasons are not complicated...
...Relatively few Canadians were ever convinced of its necessity...
...This has led to a situation where an individual hits the top marginal rate (as much as 48 per cent for Federal and provincial taxes combined) with income over about $123,000 Cdn...
...Administration will pose challenges on a number of fronts...
...relations...
...A further source of optimism is the wide recognition that passage of the protectionist Smoot-Hawley tariff in 1930 sparked retaliations by U.S...
...Thus policies that hurt Canada are likely to hurt the United States as well...
...That is not a frivolous question...
...office was immensely satisfying to Canadians of all backgrounds...
...Its acknowledged shortcomings include long delays for nonemergency treatment, rationing of services, inadequate availability of the latest equipment, etc...
...public policy...
...Of course, the corollary is that higherincome people have to pay higher taxes to fund the government’s programs...
...Insofar as Harper is able to cooperate with Obama, he would probably benefit politically because that would align him more closely with his own electorate...
...Neither of these economic impacts is appreciated in the current climate...
...As the contest wore on, he became increasingly popular and most people here were rooting for him...
...Car manufacturers are among the companies that have most successfully straddled the border, so whatever happens to General Motors, Ford and Chrysler is likely to be echoed here...
...Another one of Obama’s goals that sounds very familiar to Canadians is refundable income tax credits—even to people who pay little or no taxes...
...Shipments across the border have become more complex too...
...Compared to the United States, which until now, with only one exception, has always chosen white Protestant males as Presidents, Canada has had both Protestant and Catholic prime ministers and (briefly) a woman...
...As he strives to extend medical coverage to the 47 million Americans who don’t have any, and to improve the way medical care is delivered to Americans in general, he would do well to carefully examine Canada’s nearly 40 years of experience with universal Medicare...
...Ottawa, however, has made clear its intention to pull out of Afghantistan by 2011, and that could create a problem for Washington...
...In addition, his victory struck a responsive chord in a country that partially defines itself by its multiculturalism...
...public policy that resembles Canada’s to a considerable extent...
...Canada, for instance, has been strongly committed to the conflict in Afghanistan and would welcome the implementation of Obama’s promised increase in the American involvement there...
...The challenge for Obama and his colleagues would be to ascertain both the benefits and the pitfalls of the Canadian system...
...Canadians also certainly noticed it when Obama promised during the campaign to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA...
...President George W. Bushhad become very unpopular, particularly because of his Iraq stance and his sometimes heavyhanded direction of the war against Islamic terrorists...
...exports and in general is its closest economic partner...
...IN SHORT, given the seriousness of the global economic situation, the indications are that altering Canada-U.S...
...So seeing an AfricanAmerican ascend to the highest U.S...
...manufacturing jobs from foreign competition...
...election was on the potential for the new President’s policies to have a deleterious impact on Canada...
...The policy is firmly established in this society where a substantial proportion of citizens pay no income tax...
...Counting on a Convergence of Interests How Sees Obama By Harold M. Waller Montreal Canadians welcomed Barack Obama's election, despite being somewhat apprehensive about campaign suggestions that he and the Congressional Democrats would pursue protectionist trade policies...
...These rates are most unlikely in the U.S., but what Obama has promised is something Canadians would clearly recognize...
...The two countries have an extensive and complex relationship based in large part on proximity, but also on shared interests and values...
...An added advantage is that the system encourages low-income people to file tax returns, thereby getting them registered in government computers...
...Moreover, Canada is the major supplier of oil and gas to the U.S...
...But despite much of the bluster that characterized Canada’s reaction to the campaign across the border, the fundamental interests of the two countries on matters such as trade, the environment and foreign policy can be expected to hold up well under Obama’s Administration...
...Few asked what impact Canada might have on the U.S...
...Their hope is that once he is able to examine the situation carefully he will find a way to pull back from his threat without alienating the protectionist elements in his party...
...Yet amid the unprecedented coverage the American race received there was anxious speculation about how the new political order in Washington would affect Canada...
...The U.S...
...The post of governorgeneral, who represents the Queen as head of state, has recently been filled by two women of Asian and Haitian descent, respectively...
...Consider universal health care, one of his top domestic objectives...
...While they understood his motivation during the primaries, they worry that his rhetoric signals a turn toward greater protectionism to shield U.S...
...There are several reasons to believe this is not merely wishful thinking...
...Since the President-elect would surely not want to reopen negotiations on energy, the logic goes, he isn’t about to reverse the trend of North American integration, even if NAFTA is tweaked a bit...
...If you look closely at some of the policies Obama has put forward it turns out that there is a great deal he could learn from the Canadian experience...
...This made them especially receptive to Obama's "It's time for a change" mantra...
...reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been a matter of concern as well...
...On the contrary, though Prime Minister Stephen Harper is much more conservative and his minority government is under pressure, the two leaders are likely to focus on the areas where their interests converge...
...Tourists who do not already possess a passport may therefore be deterred from making the trip, and compliance with shipping regulations increases the price of imported goods...
Vol. 91 • November 2008 • No. 6
