Canada Postpones Three Amigos Summit Amid Chilly Relations with U.S. and Mexico Campbell Clark - The Globe and Mail
go to original January 15, 2015

Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico's President, center, stands with U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Stephen Harper, Canada's prime minister, at last year’s North American Leaders Summit meeting in Toluca, Mexico. (Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has postponed the North American leaders’ summit with U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at a time when relations with both leaders are chilly.

The unexpected move allows Mr. Harper to avoid an awkward side-by-side news conference with Mr. Obama at a February summit that all three governments were expecting would be dominated by the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline – now at the top of the political agenda in Washington.

Instead, the Prime Minister surprised the United States and Mexico by postponing the event, popularly dubbed the Three Amigos summit, to an unspecified date late in the year. “We intend to proceed with the meeting later in 2015,” said Mr. Harper’s communications director, Jason MacDonald.

Mr. Harper’s government did not provide an explanation to either country, instead noting that they had never officially confirmed the date in February, sources said.

But planning was advanced for a late February summit, with the dates set aside on the always-packed calendars of the U.S. President and his Mexican counterpart.

Read the rest at The Globe and Mail

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