Angry in the Great White North

Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama:

What better country than one where a man, in Indiana, has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch as it is shipped off to China.

NDP leader Jack Layton:

Like the father and son in Kenora.  They were coworkers for years in their mill.  They told me what it's like to box up the equipment they'd worked with for years, so that the foreign-owned company they'd worked for could ship their jobs off to China.

Here's the actual video comparison:

I guess it could be coincidence.  Sure.  I suppose all Jack Layton has to do is identify the mill in Kenora that was foreign-owned and that transferred operations to China, and the worker involved can confirm this account.

Otherwise, unfortunately, the two stories seem so close that I have to wonder if someone in Jack Layton's speech-writing team liked Obama's story so much that he or she swapped Kenora for Indiana, and left the rest.

Clear as mud: Jack Layton responds...