President-elect Barack Obama Will Make His First Presidential Visit to Canada

President-elect Barack Obama has announced that his first international trip as the newly elected President of the United States will be to Canada.

The Prime Minister’s office confirms that the president-elect has accepted Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s invitation to visit Canada soon after he is inaugurated on January 20th.

Transition aides for the president-elect say that Obama picked the United States neighbour to north as his first trip within North America as president, but they could not discuss the date for the trip or its itinerary.

The Office of the Prime Minister has also said that it has been in close contact with Obama’s transition team and an official for the transition team says that aides for the president-elect and Harper have been discussing specifics of the trip in recent days.

As well, the transition team official maintains that Obama and Harper themselves have not made contact to discuss the trip.

Obama will first meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, which will be his first in-person meeting with a world leader since winning the election, while critics to Harper believe that Obama’s decision to first meet with the Mexican President is a political slap in the face to Harper and his Conservative government for their interference in the U.S. Democratic primaries.

As many may recall, the last president to visit Canadian soil was none other than George W. Bush, in 2004, which proved to be a very chaotic experience. Many protesters showed up on Parliament Hill to protest Bush’s views on religion, environment and energy policies, as well as his handling/mishandling of the war raging in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This time around, the setting should prove to be much different. As many Canadians were overwhelming supporters of Obama during the presidential race to the White House.

One can only presume that revelers will gather on the grounds of Parliament with cheers of admiration for the forthcoming president, who has captivated a nation.

However, for Barack Obama, the hardest part has yet to come.

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Tags: government, harper, obama, ottawa, parliament, president

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 3:12 am and is filed under Canada and the World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.