Former president Barack Obama encourages Canadians to re-elect liberal leader Justin Trudeau next week at the polls on October 21.

“I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President. He’s a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term,” Obama tweeted Wednesday morning.

The endorsement of a political candidate in a Canadian election by a former President of the United States is unprecedented.

Drew Fagan, a professor of Public Policy at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, told the BBC News that Obama’s endorsement is “unusual.”

“There is a tradition of non-intervention,” said Fagan. “The sensitivity in this case is because our ties are so close and yet the power imbalance is so great.”

Fagan said there is not a president or former president who ever endorsed a Canadian candidate, even though President Clinton spoke in 1995 against Quebec separatism in Ottawa. Fagan warned, “Obama himself now could become an issue in this campaign.”

Some Twitter users didn’t appreciate the endorsement, calling Obama out for his “foreign interference.”

One person asked Obama to “please stay out of our election.”

It’s also odd that Obama never endorsed his own vice president Joe Biden or any presidential candidate for 2020. Obama also endorsed Emmanuel Macron in 2017 during the French election.

What are your thoughts about Obama’s endorsement?