WASHINGTON — John McCain visits a place today he has absolutely no chance of winning: Canada.

While McCain said he is traveling to Ottawa, Ontario, the nation's capital, to speak about free trade and other issues, this jaunt and prospective trips to the Middle East and Europe by Democrat Barack Obama are examples of how this year's presidential campaign has gone global, political analyst Stuart Rothenberg said.

"While this is an American campaign, the whole world is watching," Rothenberg said.

McCain, having already visited Iraq, Europe and the Middle East, is considering a trip to Colombia and Mexico early next month. Obama is looking at visits to Iraq, Afghanistan and Europe.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee's trip to Canada comes amid a fierce political debate with Obama over free trade.

Lowering trade barriers "is a fundamental necessity if our economy is going to improve," McCain said this week. He has repeatedly criticized Obama for opposing new free-trade deals with Colombia and South Korea, and suggesting a re-negotiation of the existing North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Democrats said McCain might as well discuss free trade in Canada, because his support won't do him much good in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and other industrial states that have suffered losses of manufacturing jobs.

"I think he should come to Detroit and to Michigan to see the effects of free trade," said that state's Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm.

McCain has hammered Obama's criticisms of NAFTA, saying the pact has yielded a third of U.S. exports, including $17 billion in exports last year from Obama's home state of Illinois.

In an interview this week with Fortune magazine, Obama said he supports open markets, but notes what he calls real costs to free trade. He also said he wants to work on these problems with U.S. trading partners.

Free-trade critics such as the AFL-CIO labor organization point to the drop of manufacturing jobs.

Economist Charles McMillion, who did a study for the anti-NAFTA American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, reported that Ohio has lost 23.3 percent of its manufacturing jobs since 2000, and Michigan 30.8 percent.