It’s not especially unusual for presidential candidates to engage in foreign travel during the campaign, though it may be slightly counterintuitive (candidates usually want to impress voters here, instead of heading abroad). With that in mind, at first blush, John McCain’s speech to the Economic Club of Canada the other day wouldn’t seem especially interesting.
But indicative of the kind of clumsiness and unforced errors we’ve come to expect from the McCain campaign, the brief trip north of the border turned out to be more than a little problematic. McCain said his appearance in Canada had “nothing to do” with the presidential campaign. That wasn’t true.
Senator John McCain’s campaign sent out an e-mail message on Friday highlighting what it called Senator Barack Obama’s “completely mystifying shift” on the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The Republican National Committee issued a news release charging that Mr. Obama is “for free trade but against free trade agreements” and even released a Web video about Mr. Obama and free trade.
Mr. McCain’s campaign plane, full of reporters, made an unusual foray past the battleground states here to Canada, where Mr. McCain gave a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in which he was applauded for saying that “for all the successes of Nafta, we have to defend it without equivocation in political debate.”
McCain said it was “not a political campaign trip,” but he traveled aboard his chartered campaign jet. McCain said he does not believe in attacking Americans while outside the country, but he nevertheless lambasted Obama for his concerns about NAFTA (McCain was careful to avoid condemning Obama by name, but his message wasn’t subtle).
What’s more, while it’s illegal for foreigners to donate money to U.S. candidates, McCain hosted a $100-per-person “finance event” (a campaign euphemism for a fundraiser), at which McCain emphasized his campaign themes of “reform, peace and prosperity.” McCain didn’t actually collect any of the money himself, but the optics looked pretty bad — a Republican presidential candidate travels to Canada (instead of, say, Ohio) to talk about trade, and then is the featured guest at a foreign fundraiser.
Wait, it gets worse.
The Hatch Act prevents federal employees from using their offices for campaign purposes, which is why it was odd to see the U.S. Ambassador to Canada organizing McCain’s campaign speech in Ottawa.
A Canadian newspaper reported Thursday that Friday’s scheduled $100-a-plate luncheon speech by Sen. John McCain in Ottowa was organized in part by U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, a former South Carolina lawmaker whom President Bush appointed in 2005.
Democrats pointed out the article late Thursday night, and alleged that Wilkins’s actions could be construed as a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits many kinds of political activities by government employees.
The article in the Edmonton Sun, and an earlier one in the Globe and Mail, says that Wilkins contacted Thomas d’Aquino, the president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, to help set up what they described as a fundraiser before McCain’s visit. McCain is scheduled to give a speech at the the Chateau Laurier Hotel and to meet with several Canadian officials.
According to the Sun: “Wilkins had been contacted by the McCain campaign about a Canadian visit, and the ambassador wanted to know if some of d’Aquino’s group of corporate chief executives might be interested in meeting the Republican presidential candidate. Almost instantly, d’Aquino jumped at the opportunity.”
The McCain campaign defended the ambassador’s efforts by insisting this wasn’t a political event, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding.
Canadians didn’t seem especially pleased by the campaigning.
It’s rare, perhaps unprecedented, for a U.S. presidential candidate to come to Canada and deliver a political speech in the course of an American election campaign. But here comes John McCain, right on the heels of the NAFTA imbroglio that embarrassed Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.
The controversy over the Canadian leak of a diplomatic note damaging to Democrat Barack Obama has been receding with time. This can only be pleasing to the Harper team. But the appearance in Ottawa of Mr. McCain, set for Friday, is a good bet to reignite the whole business, putting Ottawa’s ignoble deed again in the mix in the race for the White House.
That’s bad for the Harper government, bad for bilateral relations. As interesting as it is to have the Republican candidate for the presidency here, better that he stay away.
McCain didn’t take the advice.