By Fred Ryan
The dust hasn’t settled on the SPP meeting in nearby Montebello, QC, but the world according to Bush- Harper-Calderon is bending over backwards to assure us that the SPP agreements mean nothing to our daily lives, and that the protesters were exaggerating the threat of the secret deliberations.
If we believe all this, maybe we should check out the sale on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Prime Minister Harper assured the media that the agreements will smooth business relations between the three countries. Matters like standardized shipping container sizes and other regulations and restrictions, all minor thorns in the side of those trying to sell Canadian goods into the US market.
This is Mr. Harper’s reason to sign on to the SPP, which strengthens agreements for Canadian oil and gas to flow south before our own needs are met. Mr. Harper, he wants us to know, is a Canadian patriot. He’s defending Canada. However, as any high school student will note, Mr. Harper is talking about north-south trade routes, while our history has been a constant effort to create east-west trade and communication routes.
The east-west routes now bottleneck at the borders of every province, except Alberta and BC who have just signed a free trade-like accord. If Mr. Harper is the Canadian leader he claims, why isn’t he putting the same effort into removing the thorns, regulations, and restrictions hindering the flow of goods, services, and labour across Canada, instead of working so hard to do this for trade to and from the south?
Trading north-south is not wise. First, just south of every province are regions very similar to those provinces.
Why would maple syrup be better sold into the US Northeast, which has its own maple syrup production, than to Alberta?
Why would Alberta beef be easier sold to Montana, which produces its own beef, rather than to eastern Canada?
Of course, we want to sell to the entire American market, not just “to the south”, but the entire American market means selling east-west. East-west trade is good in the USA, but not in Canada?
So far, north-south “trade” means trading our manufacturing jobs for cheap goods produced in low-wage zones in Mexico.
Is this leadership? Is it smart to get rid of manufacturing in Canada, the famous “value added” process, and keep only resource extraction and passive consumption up here?
That’s what the “deep integration,” so often referred to in SPP documents, means.
Mr. Harper’s claim to be a Canadian leader suggest he should follow up the SPP disgrace with an effort to improve east-west trade within Canada. Granted, it’s no fun to deal with provincial and territorial leaders, all fighting to keep control of their piece of the pie, but that’s what leadership means in Canada.
Let’s see a charm campaign to win over the provincial leaders, not alienate them as he’s done with Newfoundland, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and the Maritimes.
A Canada more united east to west would mean real security and prosperity -- and real partnership
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