U.S. Congress: no soft spot for Canadians

[Canadian Socialist]

by Linda McQuaig
August 29, 2005

It's often noted that the United States is so big and powerful it barely notices Canada. Indeed, the average U.S. citizen probably couldn't locate Canada on a map of North America (and if he could, he wouldn't bother to).

This sense of Canada's insignificance, drummed into us constantly by our media commentators, has helped fuel the mythology that we scored a great coup back in 1988 when we signed the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.

In fact, that deal — and the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement — was more a coup for Washington than Ottawa.

Contrary to mythology, Washington was keen to sign free-trade deals with Canada for lots of reasons, including winning guaranteed access to our energy, which they got.
<snip>
http://tinyurl.com/aqdav

Have I every mentioned how much I love Linda McQuaig?

[metis]

1. Mulroney

Have I told you lately how much I hate Mulroney?

[Canadian Socialist]

2. Which one?

Brian or Ben :hi:

[Maple]

3. This is becoming

an increasingly popular idea in Canada I notice.

[wli]

4. I was disgusted with both the Mulroneys, and I'm American. n/t

[applegrove]

5. Yes - I think Nafta doesn't work if the dispute mechanism settlement

thingy is ignored or if the USA just keeps Canada in litigation for decades to get away with it.

NAFTA was a hard sell. And this isn't helping. The neocons like the 19th century and people there were breaking treaties all the time. Looks like we should suss out opting out as an option. Cause this is stupidity.

And then their ambassador tells us "not to go on emotion". THAT'S RIGHT - A NEOCON AMBASSADOR WANTS US TO NOT USE EMOTION IN OUR NATIONAL STRUGGLES - SO I TAKE IT EMOTION IS ONLY TO BE USED TO GET NEOCONS ELECTED AND TO SELL STUFF ON THE TV. OTHERWISE EMOTION IS "WRONG". LIKE WHEN THE INCOMES AND ECONOMIES OF HALF THE COUNTRY IS AT STAKE

HYPOCRITES!