Snow Visits U.S.’s Biggest Oil Supplier: It’s Not Saudi Arabia

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow’s first official visit to Canada begins today in an isolated city amid marshlands and lakes — and oil reserves big enough to reshape political and economic ties between the two countries.

The destination is Fort McMurray, Alberta, 750 kilometers (466 miles) northeast of Calgary in the heart of Canada’s C$39.4 billion ($32 billion) oil industry, which in 2000 passed Saudi Arabia to become the U.S.’s biggest oil supplier. Fort McMurray also represents something else, said former policy makers and diplomats: a chance to revive U.S.-Canada relations strained since 2003 by the Iraq war.