U.S. president-elect Barack Obama may turn out to be far better for
Canadian free trade and economic interests than candidate Barack Obama
ever pretended to be, experts on both sides of the border agree.
He was far from neighbourly in his pronouncements impacting Canada during the campaign.
At times, he sounded stridently protectionist and even hinted he might
tear up the NAFTA trade agreement to protect industrial jobs in
hard-hit parts of the U.S. industrial heartland.
The nearly 20-year-old Canada-U.S. trade deal, expanded to include
Mexico in the mid-1990s, has proved successful for all three countries,
with expanded trade flows across their borders. However, critics in the
U.S. say it has led to job losses in that country.

