Canada Leak 'Regrettable,' Envoy Says

Ambassador says disclosure of Obama memo not 'interference' in US politics
By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 6, 2008 6:45 PM CST
Canada Leak 'Regrettable,' Envoy Says
A worker walks inside a giant warehouse under construction for an expanding customs brokerage house that handles import and export goods in Laredo, Texas, Friday, Feb. 29, 2008. Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton roundly condemn NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, as they...   (Associated Press)

A memo leaked by Canadian diplomats was "regrettable," the US ambassador to Ottawa said today, but not, as he hinted earlier, "interference" in America's electoral process, Reuters reports. The document detailed a meeting between Canadian officials and a member of Barack Obama's campaign, who said Obama wasn't as opposed to NAFTA as his rhetoric indicated.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has ordered a probe into the leak, which some news outlets have traced to his chief of staff. "Our relationship is much stronger than one issue, it is much stronger than one incident," ambassador David Wilkins said of so-called NAFTA-gate. Some analysts say it helped Hillary Clinton in this week's primaries. "These things happen, it's a bump in the road," Wilkins said. (More Barack Obama stories.)

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