Canada-EU trade deal. "Are Canadians free traders or just Europhiles?"

[pampango]

Once, looming free trade with the U.S. was the most divisive issue in Canada. Today, almost everyone agrees on the Canada-EU deal. What’s changed?

Twenty-five years ago this month a general election was fought in this country over free trade with the United States. It was one of the few federal elections in recent memory where a policy question was central to the campaign.

Exactly 25 years after that pivotal election, Prime Minister Harper has all but concluded a free-trade pact with the European Union, which the government claims is even more significant than the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

The Liberals and New Democrats broadly support free trade with Europe (although both have voiced criticisms over specific elements of the nascent agreement). Social and environmental groups, which fought trench warfare against the Canada-U.S. FTA for years, have little to say on this agreement. The mainstream media, which were also divided over free trade in the 1980s, see the prime minister’s deal as a clear political winner. Free trade with Europe won’t be much of an issue in the 2015 election.

... is it that Canadians are no more enthusiastic about free trade today than a generation ago, we are just more comfortable with the dance partner this time around? We feel less threatened by distant, soft, diplomatic Europe, than we did with on-our-doorstep, in-your-face, take-no-prisoners America. Why would we fear Europe, whose welfare state and environmental regulations, one of the central preoccupations of the anti-free trade crusaders a generation ago, are in fact more progressive than what Canada has on offer?

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/10/30/are_canadians_free_traders_or_just_europhiles.html