Christie breezed through Ottawa with no official advance notice of his visit from the Conservative government but was seen in the hallway outside the House of Commons in the morning with Industry Minister James Moore and a dozen Tory MPs.
Then it was across the street to the prime minister’s Langevin Block office, Christie said as he hustled out the door of the Centre Block.
“My visit’s been really wonderful so far and I’m looking forward to going over and meeting with the prime minister now,” he told a reporter asking about his day in Ottawa.
After spending an hour with Harper, Christie joined with Government House leader Peter Van Loan to lay a wreath at the National War Memorial in memory of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who was shot and killed at the monument in October.
“The prime minister and I had a wonderful conversation, and it was a great honour for me to meet him and to be here in Canada and to express to him the same things that I have expressed throughout my visit here and when I’m in the States — which is, we have a fabulous relationship with Canada, we should make it even stronger and I admire the prime minister greatly for the leadership he’s providing here in Canada,” Christie told the media as he left the memorial.
Asked if Harper had endorsed his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Christie just laughed.
Harper’s office did not announce Christie’s visit and there was no media photo-op, which usually takes place when Harper hosts well-known visitors. But Christie later posted a photo on his Twitter account of him with the prime minister.
Asked earlier if he was surprised there had been no official advance notice by Canada about his events in the capital, Christie said it wasn’t up to him.
“I can’t account for that,” he said. “We put everything out, you should get on our email list.”
Christie’s visit came at a time when Harper is being criticized for not agreeing to meet with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. But Van Loan said the government had not sent out the usual details of Christie’s day on Parliament Hill because it was not an official visit by a head of state.
But Moore issued a recap of his talk with Christie, saying the two men “emphasized their mutual commitment to creating jobs and opportunities” by “expanding North American trade opportunities.”
Moore and Christie also agreed on the need to build the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oilsands-derived crude from Alberta to the United States, Moore said.
The long-stalled approval process for Keystone has become an irritant in relations between Canada and the U.S. Harper has repeatedly urged President Barack Obama, who has the final say, to approve the $8-billion (U.S.) pipeline and Christie and other powerful Republicans are pushing hard to get the project quickly approved.
On Friday afternoon, Christie went to Toronto to wrap up his two-day visit to Canada. He declared Dec. 5 “Canadian Utility Appreciation Day” and thanked Canadian electric and natural gas utilities for their assistance in Superstorm Sandy recovery efforts in 2012.
Source: thestar.com/
Author: Les Whittington
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