TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper strongly suggested Friday that politics was behind the Obama administration’s decision to delay a proposed oil pipeline from Canada — days before his planned visit to the White House.
Harper travels to Washington on Wednesday, where he and Obama are expected to announce an agreement to enhance border security and trade. Harper also is expected to urge Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline to the Texas Gulf Coast.
“It is not in this country’s interests that we are a captive supplier of the United States of energy products, especially when we see some of the politics that are going on south of the border,” Harper said.
He later said in an interview with Sun Media that he was “disappointed with the politics down there.”
