Bob Hepburn writes this morning in the Toronto Star asking Obama (figuratively) to come and visit Canada, arguing it would help him “hone his views” on Canada and policy towards us. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happenning. He doesn’t need to use Canada to practice his foreign diplomacy skills, as his tour to the Middle East shows he’s more then capable of handling that.  He also has little incentive to visit a country whose Conservative government tried to sabotage his presidential nomination run in Ohio with those “leaked” documents, in a clumsy attempt to either help defeat him in the Democratic primary or failing that, give the Republicans something to try and weaken him with.
That will change if he becomes President - but it will be interesting to see if Canada is the first foreign country he’ll pay a visit to if that were to occur. Traditionally this country has been a first stop for newly elected presidents. George W. Bush broke that trend when he was elected. Whether Obama follows suit may depend on whether the Conservative government is still in power or not. That’s not a reason to de-elect Harper - there are many better reasons to do so - but his government’s attempted hit on Obama won’t likely be forgotten.
I understand that Obama’s brother-in-law is Canadian.