From Vive le Canada<\/p>\n
Harper Not Just Americanizing, But Abolishing Canada
\nBy Susan Thompson<\/p>\n
For all the continuing concern among Canada\u2019s progressives that Harper is Americanizing this country, it\u2019s unfortunate that there has been silence about the fact that if he has his way, this country as we know it will soon no longer exist.<\/p>\n
Plans are on track to establish a North American Union (NAU), a new political and economic entity that would take over governance from the existing countries of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. This is the actual end goal of \u201cdeep integration\u201d, also known as the \u201cBig Idea\u201d or \u201cGrand Bargain\u201d, as has been made clear in publications from Robert Pastor\u2019s book Toward a North American Community to the Council on Foreign Relations\u2019 trilateral task force report \u201cBuilding a North American Community\u201d. It doesn\u2019t seem to matter that the Canadian public remains largely unaware of the plan and its consequences. Nor has it been approved by the U.S. Congress; as Republican Congressman Ron Paul has written, \u201cCongressional oversight of what might be one of the most significant developments in recent history is non-existent. Congress has had no role at all in a \u2018dialogue\u2019 that many see as a plan for a North American union\u201d. But political elites in all three countries, in partnership with representatives of giant corporations such as Lockheed Martin, have been working hard to keep making headway despite what the public may think.<\/p>\n
In fact, unfortunately, most of the battles have already been won. The steps that have led us down the road towards complete integration with the U.S. have been sometimes slow but still steady since U.S. President Ronald Reagan first spoke about a common North American market back in the early 80s. A series of trade agreements, starting with the first FTA and progressing through NAFTA into the new NAFTA-plus (aka the Security and Prosperity Partnership Initiative) have established the framework for union. (Note that according to the U.S. government website dedicated to the project, the SPP is neither a treaty nor a formal agreement; it is a “dialogue”, a dubious distinction which simply seems meant to prevent official debate and discussion of the SPP among the rest of the elected representatives of the three countries.) The leaders are to meet again in Canada in 2007 to discuss progress in this \u201cdialogue\u201d, at Harper\u2019s invitation.<\/p>\n
Harper, of course, is not solely to blame. He was the merely the last Canadian Prime Minister to sign on to the plan, issuing a Leaders\u2019 Joint Statement with the U.S. and Mexico in Cancun in March, but every successive Prime Minister since Mulroney has played his part regardless of party affiliation. The sad fact is it hasn\u2019t seemed to matter if we\u2019ve had a Liberal or Conservative PM\u2014all have been just as willing as Mulroney to sing the praises of the U.S. administration, and just as willing to sign away Canadian sovereignty on the latest in a long series of dotted lines. Mulroney kicked things off by signing the original FTA, although he was acting on the advice of a Royal Commission chaired by former Liberal Minister of Finance Donald S. Macdonald. Chretien signed NAFTA without changes despite his Red Book promise to renegotiate the agreement. And Martin fulfilled his role as an \u201camigo\u201d to the U.S. at the Waco Summit in 2005, signing the Security and Prosperity Partnership Initiative, the foundation for NAFTA-plus and a future North American Union. Harper has only had to pick up where they left off, although there is little doubt he has been more than willing to do so. Nor has it been any different in the U.S., where it hasn\u2019t mattered whether it was Republicans or Democrats in power\u2014every President since Reagan has been on board. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n