The Beavertail Summit

A senior editor here came up with the moniker “The Beavertail Summit” for today's Obama-Harper meetings. Better than the Shamrock Summit (I think). Still, just as with the Shamrock Summit, some pundits were embarrassed by Canada's enthusiasm for Obama.

Some other tweets, clips and other anecdotes:

Didn't see this one but then, I'm not a British reporter writing about an event in Ottawa from Washington:

Potential strains in relations between the US and Canada were exposed today when Barack Obama, on his first foreign trip as president, hinted at renegotiation of the North American Free Trade agreement.

Obama at a joint press conference with the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, tried to square a campaign pledge to renegotiate the agreement while at the same time avoid sparking a trade war with Canada.

A CNN reporter, Ed Henry, was apparently in town with the White House press corps noodling over the idea of doing a story about how the Canadian Parliament Press Gallery is under the thumb of the PMO. Now I know we got issues with the PMO but I like to think things are a bit better here than, say, with the White House press corps who has succumbed apparently to a system in which White House press staff cherry pick reporters at Obama pressers.

On Twitter all day, monitoring and kicking in to #obamawa, and one key theme for Canadian twitterers was criticism of Prime Minister's Harper's wardrobe and, in particular, his hair, as in” Hey Prime Minister Harper. Trent Lott called and he wants his hair back!”

Here's the “pool” report on Obama's meeting with Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff:

Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae and Obama made small talk about Democrats, ice skating and Beavertails as the photographers came in. A couple of other officials sat in on the meeting.

Ignatieff seated directly to Obama’s left and Rae sitting to the left of Ignatieff.

Both Obama and Ignatieff had their legs crossed and seemed at relaxed and at ease.

Obama repeated his remarks from the end of his news conference with Harper that he was greatful for all the Canadians that came tro

“We don’t ice skate on lake michigan,” Obama said with a chuckle

“And no beavertails,” someone else said.

“No we don’t have beavertails, but we do have the equivalent,” Obama said

Later, after Obama was asked whether he ate the Beavertail he said:

“I ate a little of it, it's very large.”

And yet more about that Beavertail — apparently a specially designed Beavertail with a giant O and whipped cream.

Jessica Millien, 17, said she screamed for five minutes with excitement after meeting Obama in person. She works at the Beaver Tail hut where treats made of fried dough, cinnamon and sugar are made. A security man asked her to bring one to Obama who was standing across the street with secret service guards around him.

“I gave him his tail and shook his hand and had a conversation with him,” she said. “I almost fainted. He just asked me about my day and what the tails consisted of. He's a really down-to-earth guy.”

The questions. Reporters got exactly four at the hour-long press conference. Two from each country. For Canada, that would be one French and one English. Reporters, not the PMO, decided who the questioners would be and the 40 or so Canadian journalists allowed to attend the press conference collectively decided what to ask. So here you go (transcript and translation courtesy of the The White House):

Emmanuelle Latraverse (Radio-Canada): On the environment, beyond research, technology and science, how far are the two countries willing to go to harmonize your strategies, in terms of greenhouse gas reductions? And how can you reconcile your two approaches when they seem so different, especially considering the fact that Canada refuses to have hard caps, in part, because of the oil sands?

Jennifer Ditchburn (Canadian Press): I have a question for both of you. Mr. President, during your meetings today, did you discuss the possibility of Canada stepping up its stimulus plan? And secondly, for both of you: What do you think the Canada-U.S. relationship will look like in four years? What will the auto sector look like? Will the border be thicker or thinner? And will you have a carbon market?

And finally: Here's the first few paragraphs of the final of nine – count 'em — nine stories I wrote today about The Beavertail Summit:

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his one-day guest, U.S. President Barack Obama, concluded a few hours of meetings here by proclaiming renewed commitments to fight climate change, the global recession and security threats to the North American continent.

“Ilove this country,” Obama said at a Parliament Hill press conference, the first he's given outside the United States since he became president. “We could not have a better friend and ally.”

Harper used the occasion to deliver a message he hopes American journalists travelling with the U.S. president will take to their readers and viewers, that Canada is as serious about security as the U.S.

“There is no such thing as a threat to the national security of the United States which does not represent a direct threat to this country,” Harper said. “We, as Canadians, have every incentive to be as co-operative and alarmed about the threats that exist to the North American continent in the modern age as do the people of the United States.”

Aides said the purpose of their first face-to-face meeting was to start a lasting personal relationship both men said could be an important factor in helping to achieve economic and political goals in their respective countries.

But the two also announced that they had agreed on a new Clean Energy Dialogue, a commitment that top officials and scientists from both sides of the border would pool research and expertise to find clean sources of energy … [read the rest]