The Chinese state-owned firm CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation) has a $15-billion bid on the table to buy under-performing Calgary based oil-and gas producer Nexen.
Quebec Liberal MP and leadership candidate candidate Justin Trudeau had this to say about the deal in an op-ed distributed today to the Postmedia papers. (He approves): Continue reading China in the oil patch? Trudeau has thumbs up. Mulcair thumbs down. Harper? Who knows?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper hosts Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete on Parliament Hill this afternoon. It’s not the first time the two men have met. In fact, their personal relationship goes back to 2007, when Harper made his first trip to the African continent as Prime Minister. Harper was in Africa then to attend the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala, Uganda. I was part of the press contingent that travelled with Harper to cover that meeting.
Last weekend in Vladivostok, Russia, at the annual summit of the Pacific nation leaders who are part of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organization, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met Russian President Vladimir Putin for 50 minutes. The two men, flanked by half a dozen officials on either side, met for about 50 minutes. They talked about a range of issues. Harper questioned free speech rights in Putin’s Russia. In defending free speech rights, Putin used the phrase “gang bang”. I found that odd enough that I wrote about it here.
The two men also talked about the situation in Syria. Continue reading Putin calls Harper a "Trotskyite" and other post-Arab Spring reflections
Read this powerful paragraph from Ovide Mercredi, delivered at the Crown-First Nations summit in the presence of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and AFN National Chief Shaun Atleo: Continue reading Which leader was Mercredi referring to in this powerful paragraph?
Getting any kind of a deal with the Americans these days on just about anything can be considered a big deal.
U.S. President Barack Obama is, if the polls can be believed, not having a good time of it. He has been politically neutered by his Republic opponents in Congress and in the U.S. Senate. There is a virtual logjam in Washington on most issues because those Republicans refuse to play nice with Democrats and vice versa.
And so against that background two deals announced this afternoon between Canada and the U.S. can be considered an accomplishment of sorts.
Continue reading New border deals: More aspirational than actual changes