Obama takes his trade wars to sports
It looks like our trade wars won't be limited to China. It seems the Obama Administration is picking on Air Canada, which is affecting charter flights for NHL teams for the upcoming season:
Canada’s six NHL teams are scrambling to find alternative travel arrangements south of the border after the U.S. Department of Transportation banned Air Canada’s charter fleet from flying between U.S. cities.According to the article, the policy was pushed by US Airline Pilots Association, which is a union.In a furious exchange with the Obama administration over the mid-August ruling, Canada has launched its own investigation and will soon close its skies to U.S. sports team charters in retaliation, warns Transport Minister John Baird.
The sticking point is an eight-year-old exemption that had allowed sports and celebrity charters to make several pit stops in American cities. Under existing open skies agreements, regular Canadian airline flights can only visit one U.S. city before returning.
[...]
Mr. Baird said the dispute "shows the power of anti-free-trade Democrats in the Congress" and cautioned his government will respond in kind."We've already directed the Canadian Transportation Agency to launch a formal inquiry and the next step will be a direction to the CTA to immediately prohibit charter flights by U.S. carriers under season-long contracts with professional sports teams with multiple stops in Canada," he said in an interview.
Teams will, of course, terminate their contracts with Air Canada and take their business to a US-based airline.



Comments
First Obama went around the world apologizing to the world about us being bad.
Now he is alienating countries that are friendly toward us. We might as well put an add in the newspaper. Large country, lots of people willing to be ordered around, Free to good home, you pickup.
Dark Knight
Posted by: Dark Knight | September 15, 2009 01:44 PM
I know this is a lie because it says Canadians are furious about something. Whoever wrote this clearly hasn't seen Canadian Bacon or the South Park movie, and therefore knows nothing about Canadians.
Posted by: Rusty | September 15, 2009 02:18 PM