Canada to Stop ISIS Strikes

Trudeau tells Obama he's keeping campaign promise
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 21, 2015 5:21 AM CDT
Canada to Stop ISIS Strikes
Prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau makes his way from Parliament Hill to hold a news conference in Ottawa, Ontario, on Tuesday.   (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's new leader had some bad news for President Obama in their first conversation since his stunning election win on Monday. Justin Trudeau told Obama that he plans to follow through on his campaign promise and end Canada's role in the airstrike campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, CNN reports. Trudeau, who didn't say exactly when the fighter jets sent by ousted Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year would withdraw from the fight, said Obama "understands the commitments I have made around ending the combat mission," reports the CBC, which notes that Trudeau's Liberal Party has pledged to focus on humanitarian aid and training missions instead of airstrikes.

The White House says the two leaders talked about issues such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and efforts to fight climate change, on which Trudeau plans to work more closely with the US than Harper did. "Canada's days of being a less-than-enthusiastic actor on the climate-change file are behind us," Trudeau said on Tuesday, per the BBC. Trudeau said the tone of the call was "warm," and Obama teased him about his lack of gray hair, reports the CBC. "He said that I will probably get some quite soon, just like him," Trudeau said. (When Trudeau was a few months old, Richard Nixon predicted that he would become prime minister.)

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