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Now that U.S. Democrats have chosen Barack Obama, many Canadians may be wondering: Is he right for Canada?

Under Mr. Obama, the White House is likely to move closer to Ottawa on foreign policy and other international matters, but Canada's most important ties to the United States are economic, and he isn't an obvious ally on the economic front.

He's vowed to fix the North American free-trade agreement and make it more favourable for U.S. workers. He says he'll fight for "fair trade" by vigorously enforcing U.S. laws. He wants to help the Detroit Three auto makers build green cars of the future - in U.S. plants. And he's committed to weaning the country off imported oil by 2020, including, presumably, the roughly two million barrels a day it gets from Canada.

"It is time for the United States to take real steps to end our addiction to oil," Mr. Obama said last week, revisiting one of his favourite campaign themes.

How the rhetoric of the primaries translates into the presidential race, and ultimately into presidential decisions, is unclear.

Mr. Obama's threat to scrap NAFTA, for example, has caused consternation in Canada. But few experts, on either side of the border, expect he would go that far if elected.

"I'm optimistic that we would be looking at productive and constructive change, not some withdrawal from our engagement with Canada," said Gordon Giffin, U.S. ambassador to Canada from 1997 to 2001, and a staunch Democrat.

"We were trading beaver pelts across the border 250 years ago. There's no way to retrench. We can only go forward."

Instead, Mr. Giffin said, Canada and the United States should look for ways to make their relationship "broader and more sophisticated" than the one enshrined in the free-trade agreement - a deal rooted in the 1980s.

Other experts worry about a protectionist drift in the United States during the next four years. Raymond Chrétien, who served as Canada's envoy in Washington from 1994 to 2000, said the worst outcome for Canada in the November election would be an Obama victory, coupled with stronger Democratic majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

"A Democratic Congress will look more closely at all trade agreements," Mr. Chrétien explained. "That would be reinforced with an Obama presidency. I'm worried about that combination for Canada."

Worse still; tough economic times typically harden U.S. attitudes on a range of issues, including trade, immigration and the border, he added.

"At a time of recession, worries among the American public are always heightened," he said.

John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate, on the other hand, is a staunch advocate of free trade.

Another potentially thorny issue for the two countries is energy. Canada is the United States's largest foreign supplier of crude oil, as well as natural gas and electricity.

If the United States gets serious about curbing its oil imports and cutting carbon emissions, it could have a profound impact on Canada, and particularly Alberta, argued Christopher Sands, who follows Canada-U.S. relations for the Hudson Institute in Washington.

"If Obama is elected, Alberta will have a real challenge," Mr. Sands said. "They'll need to make the case that oil is plentiful and that it can be a lot cleaner."

He likened the challenges facing the oil sands to the intense U.S. resistance Hydro-Quebec faced to its hydroelectric projects in northern Quebec in the 1980s.

"There [is] a campaign in the U.S. to stigmatize the oil sands," he said. "It's going to take a real push back to counter that."

No matter who wins in November, Ottawa is likely to face challenges over the border.

Top Harper government officials, prodded by the Canadian business community, have complained bitterly in recent months about a costly "thickening" of the border since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, including heightened inspections, documentation requirements, fees and congestion.

Mr. Giffin predicted that whoever is president, their administration is bound to find a better equilibrium between trade and security.

"We just got off on the wrong track in the way we deal with all of our friends," he said of the past 7½ years. "There is a pent up desire to right that wrong."

Mr. Chrétien, however, is less sanguine that U.S. angst about security will wane.

"The new president will have to take all of his decisions through the prism of security. It's there to last," Mr. Chrétien said. "And it wouldn't take much to bring it back, massively."