Pallister applauds Obama’s message of tolerance

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This article was published 29/06/2016 (3388 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Manitoba will be well served by a United States that continues to believe strongly in international trade and immigration, Premier Brian Pallister said Wednesday after U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a speech to Parliament.

Obama became the ninth U.S. president to address Parliament, and the first since Bill Clinton in 1995. After a few of the requisite jokes about cold, hockey and his bromance relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he settled into a speech that held little back in criticizing the global trend towards more isolation and less international co-operation. He also clearly signalled a desire for Canada to increase its contribution to NATO.

“He’s a wonderful speaker and he was very frank in his comments,” Pallister said. “I guess when you’re so close to the end of your term there is less political risk in doing that.”

But it was Obama’s focus on the need for more tolerance of other people, acceptance of immigration and positive comments about trade that really grabbed Pallister’s attention.

“Those speak to Canadian values,” he said. “Those are what our country is associated with. In the face of Brexit and the U.S. presidential campaign and some of the musings there, I think those were very timely and positive comments.”

The U.S. is by far Manitoba’s largest export market, with more than two-thirds of Manitoba goods that go outside the country headed south to America. Manitoba exports to the U.S. accounted for more than $9.5 billion in 2015.

Pallister’s comments run counter to some of his former colleagues in the Conservative Party of Canada, who have spoken out in support of the vote last week for Britain to leave the European Union. Calgary MP and former heritage minister Jason Kenney, and Ontario MP Tony Clement, and former Speaker Andrew Scheer, all of whom are potentially in the running to become the next leader of the federal Conservatives, have individually expressed delight in the British referendum results.

Pallister was one of several premiers on hand for Obama’s address Wednesday. He was also invited to attend the state dinner at Rideau Hall for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto Tuesday night, and met briefly with Peña Nieto and his officials during the visit.

The visit also allowed him to meet several other premiers in person for the first time, including Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Quebec Premier Phillippe Couillard and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.

Pallister was in the House of Commons for the first time since stepping down as an MP when the 2008 election was called.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca