“I don’t object to foreigners expressing their opinion,” Harper told the CBC. “But I don’t want them to be able to hijack the process so that we don’t make a decision that’s timely or in the interests of Canadians.”

Harper was referring to President Obama’s decision to delay approval of TransCanada’s pipeline. He added that the news “was a wakeup call about the degree to which Canada is ‘held hostage’ to U.S. decisions.”