photo credit: nl_gr

Update: The Canadian Embassy and the Obama campaign have both issued statements on the subject. Still many unanswered questions.

Last week news spread from Canadian Television of an Obama staffer contacting Michael Wilson Canada’s ambassador to the United States, warning him that the Senator would speak out against NAFTA but that the statements “should not be taken at face value” according to the report. Obama’s camp denied it, the ambassador denied it and John McCain attacked the Senator over it. Many saw it as a smear attempt and began questioning the reporting.

CTV later reported that the meeting took place between Obama campaign advisor Austan Goolsbee and the Canadian Consulate General in Chicago. The Obama team denied that any meeting between high-ranking campaign officials and the Canadian government had taken place. From a CTV article:

On Thursday, the Canadian embassy in Washington issued a complete denial.

“At no time has any member of a presidential campaign called the Canadian ambassador or any official at the embassy to discuss NAFTA,” it said in a statement.

But on Wednesday, one of the primary sources of the story, a high-ranking member of the Canadian embassy, gave CTV more details of the call. He even provided a timeline. He has since suggested it was perhaps a miscommunication.

The denial from the embassy was followed by a denial from Senator Obama.

“The Canadian government put out a statement saying that this was just not true, so I don’t know who the sources were,” said Obama.

Sources at the highest levels of the Canadian government — who first told CTV that a call was made from the Obama camp — have reconfirmed their position.

However the Associated Press now has a copy of a memo written by Joseph DeMora, recounting a meeting between Austan Goolsbee, and officials with the Canadian consulate in Chicago.

“Noting anxiety among many U.S. domestic audiences about the U.S. economic outlook, Goolsbee candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that has emerged, particularly in the Midwest, during the primary campaign,” the memo said. “He cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans.”

Goolsbee is disputing the account.

Also from the AP report:

Goolsbee “was frank in saying that the primary campaign has been necessarily domestically focused, particularly in the Midwest, and that much of the rhetoric that may be perceived to be protectionist is more reflective of political maneuvering than policy,” the memo’s introduction said. “On NAFTA, Goolsbee suggested that Obama is less about fundamentally changing the agreement and more in favour of strengthening/clarifying language on labour mobility and environment and trying to establish these as more `core’ principles of the agreement.”

Goolsbee said that sentence is true and consistent with Obama’s position. But he said other portions of the memo were inaccurate.

This morning Senator Clinton referredreporters to the AP article. In a statement she said “I don’t think people should come to Ohio and tell the people of Ohio one thing and then have your campaign tell a foreign government something else behind closed doors.”

So what do we know now?
1) There was a meeting (which means, people lied)
2) There was a memo recording that meeting
3) The memo appears to uphold the essential idea behind the CTV report
4) Clinton has now jumped on it, McCain undoubtedly will too
5) I am sure we will hear more SOON