Its nice to see Flaherty expressing concern about the Dems stand on NAFTA,but I wouldn't qualify that as a strong reaction.

I wish someone would point out how advantageous our mutual relationship is.

Your market for everything from cars to food is more efficient than ours. More and more Canadians are shopping south of the border to take advantage of our strong dollar and your more open markets.That's led car dealers here to lower their prices.

I am sure that Canadians flocking south during the winter have helped the economy of Florida,which needs any help it can get.

At a time when EU has helped its economy by lowering internal trade barriers,and when we all are facing stiffer competition form China and India,it makes no sense to erect new trade barriers here in North America.

There should be a way for our government and the government of Mexico to make these points more forcefully without interfering in the U.S. election.

I can't believe I'm actually writing this, but Clinton and Obama have a legitimate point. Maybe they are making that point as part of a vote-whoring exercise in pandering, but it still has merit. I do some work in northern Mexico from time to time and what I've seen there in the realm of safety, working conditions, living conditions, and environmental degradation is pretty bad, to say the least. A little pressure from the dominant partner in NAFTA (US) to strengthen fundamentals there would not be such a bad thing. The old, "bring your Mexican OSHA standards up and stop poisoning the rivers or we will have to take a long, hard look at this NAFTA thing" might be the stick that's needed to see some progress in this area. The other side of that process is the pressure the government can bring to the large US corporations who are the major players, and thus the major problem, in Mexico.

Though I don't necesarily disagree with this point, it doesn't address the reasons why the people Sens. Clinton and Obama are trying to appeal to dislike NAFTA so much. If Edwards were still in the race at this point we might have a discussion as to whether any of Ohio's economic problems would be improved at all by noodling around with labor and environmental standards in NAFTA specifically, or in most trade agreements in general.

Dan, you accuse Luo of "damming with faint praise." What is he, a beaver?

Does Canada have weaker environmental and labor standards than we do? Or are they just included in NAFTA bashing to avoid the appearance of not liking Mexicans?

Buiter & Sibert's strongest point against the proposed penalization of US firms that expand abroad is that it won't work - it's too easy for firms to get around.

But if it won't work, it won't do any harm will it?

This CTV report is hardly reassuring. Stirring up protectionist sentiment is a dangerous game. I don't think that people who take Obama at his word are going to change their minds just because he shifts his position.

Prime Minister Harper did come out today and say that NAFTA should be renegotiated. However, the strongest defense of Canada came for John McCain who pointed out that Canadian troops are fighting in Afghanistan and that the Democrats position on NAFTA was a slap in the face of a close ally.

i hope that the media or people in town hall meetings will confront Obama on how his position on NAFTA is affecting Canada-US relations. It might also be nice if someone asked him about the CTV report.

Out here among the peasants in Ohio, we are tired of economic decay and we are tired of our government officials licking the boots of Mexican government officials and kissing the fannies of illegal aliens.

Blunt enough for you?

But not to worry, because I doubt if either Senator really means what they say, memories will fade quickly when the campaign is over.

And McCain, like Bush, will do everything possible to break the economic backs of blue collar workers, it is good for Wall Street after all.