Fascination with Clinton's health 'quite bizarre,' says Canada's ambassador to the U.S.

Canada's ambassador to the United States has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton's health scare, branding theattention the issuehas receivedin the media as "quite bizarre".

"It is quite remarkable the attention, and the media focus onher getting into a vehicle,"DavidMacNaughtontold CBC News Network's Power & Politics. "It's quite bizarre actually."

"I feel badly for Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton and I'm sure many of us have had ailments likepneumoniabefore. I think that with rest she'll get over it," he told host Rosemary Barton.

• Hillary Clinton has pneumonia, cancels campaign stops through Tuesday

On Sunday it was revealed that Democratic Partypresidential nominee hadbeen diagnosed with pneumonia. Her campaign made the information public after a video emergedof the candidatestumbling and then being helped into a van by her secret service detail.

Clinton took a break fromcampaigning but has since told supporters she's feeling better.

MacNaughton said the fascination with Clinton's health stems from a lack of policy debate in the presidential election campaign.

"Part of it's just social media, 24-hour news cycle, and the fact that there hasn't been a lot of policy discussed,so people focus in on things that perhaps aren't the most important," he said.

MacNaughton admits to being critical of the U.S. media in the past, but says the length of such a sustained campaign is part of the problem.

"We went through an election last year where we were all complainingabout the length of our campaign," MacNaughtonsaid."But when you think about them, I don't know how they do it, and how the media does it. It's 24-hournews now and everybody's looking for the latest little tidbit.It's not terribly uplifting."

Cellphone video of Clinton getting into van

8 years ago

Duration 0:25

Hillary Clinton appears to stumble and require support after overheating at 9/11 memorial ceremony