Robert Gibbs

“ Again, they came back to the Summit of Americas, agreed that they would talk again before the Summit of Americas. The President asked the Prime Minister what -- to give him a flavor of what were the real preoccupations for Prime Minister Harper now, what were the big issues on his mind, and he said, it's the economy, the economy, the economy that's really 90 percent of what was taking up his time. But obviously he's spending a certain amount of time and energy on Afghanistan and climate, were two other issues that he identified on their agenda. ”

“ Ignatieff spent a lot of time talking about the importance of bipartisanship in Canada on foreign policy and how they had made the decision to back the government on the deployment after the Manley Commission, and that they saw this as not a partisan issue; it was more important to get the country together on issues like the budget and on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that this was a commitment that they were sharing across the parties, and that they wanted to work together with the United States. ”

“ And so, you know, I don't think they're -- I mean, 2011 is a long way away in terms of the strategy. I think both -- and Prime Minister Harper stressed the fact that this was not open for review. They were going to be there until 2011. I think from the President's point of view the focus was we're going to focus on the other legs of the stool -- on the governance issues, on the development issues, on the political strategy. So there was not -- there was a sense in which, at least in terms of Canada, they had really made the commitment that was needed on the military side. ”

“ Well, I think the task force meeting will be the beginning of the process in which the President and his team will discuss what has to happen going forward and what type of restructuring we're talking about. I think, obviously, as the President and many of his advisors have said, we're -- there's no doubt that some change and some restructuring is on the horizon for the domestic auto industry. ”

“ Louder, that -- step out is easy, louder is not so hard -- so easy.
So in the one-on-one, the President said that they focused primarily on the economic issues and how we could coordinate our efforts to deal with the crisis and expressed appreciation for Canada's efforts on the stimulus. And both he and the Prime Minister talked about how to coordinate their efforts to have the maximum effect, and also how they could coordinate their strategy going into the G20 meeting in London. ”

“ I think there's a lot of people, millions of people, in this country, that have played by the rules, like that person said, but through no fault of their own find that the mortgage that they currently have exceeds the value of their home. That may well be because somebody else on their street had a foreclosure. ”

“ I think if you -- I think the President put together and put forward a plan that we believe will help millions of people take advantage of right now historically low mortgage rates in a way that can help millions of people. And I think you heard the President yesterday encourage anybody who's got a mortgage to call their lender. And see, now, there are people that don't need, necessarily, government help to refinance ”

“ Then the press conference, as you all know. He then went over back to the airport and met with Mike Ignatieff and the two other members of the opposition in that briefing. And again, the issues focused on the economy. The leader of the opposition raised the concern about the danger of protectionism and sought the President's assurance on "Buy America." ”