If you did not know, the President will visit Prime Minister Steven Harper in Ottawa today. This is considered a working trip and the President will be in Canada for about six hours.



President Barack Obama will leave today for Canada -- his first foreign trip as president -- where he is expected to discuss trade and the environment with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.



A top Obama aide said this week that the president's main message to Harper will be to reassure Canadians that the United States intends to maintain a robust trading relationship with its neighbor.



"This is no time to -- for anybody to give the impression that somehow we are interested in less rather than more trade," said Denis McDonough, deputy national security adviser. "And that's what -- that's the message that he'll underscore."



McDonough said the discussion will include some reassurances from Obama that "Buy American" trade provisions inserted into the economic stimulus legislation the president signed this week will not adversely affect trade. read more here