"Trade is about competition, and competition is an essential part of life. And it’s not the duty of government to protect you from it by pulling up drawbridges and pulling out of trade deals. We’re a better country than that, and it’s time we started acting like it."

An absolutely true and excellent message, but one that would get you Julius Caesared in Canada.

With the US dollar in the tank, workers there is in the same favourable position Canadians have been in until recently. Their situation will continue to improve as their balance of trade goes from a negative number to a positive. Both Obama and Clinton are being dishonest with their electorate. Neither has any intention to renegotiate NAFTA. This is pure unadulterated pandering.

As further thought, with an election looming in Canada and our strong dollar weighing heavily on trade, look for NAFTA to become an issue on this side of the border. Taliban Jack will surely make it an issue and | wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Liberals make it an issue.

While there are things in NAFTA that can stand tweaking, unilateral abandonment isn't one of them. Canadian small industry paid heavily for NAFTA. Many US suppliers of goods to Canada went from maintaining a Canadian presence to support their sales in Canada, to operating out of the back of a semi. The Canadian Niagara peninsula and the New York Niagara frontier was devastated by NAFTA. It hasn't recovered, especially the American side. This was due to the practices of American companies, BTW.
The US record on adherence to NAFTA has never been exemplary, in any case. The US already has a history of protectionism in NAFTA.
A key point - pull NAFTA apart, and jobs will flow not only to Mexico, but way offshore in any case. NAFTA keeps some at least in North America.
Prime Minister Harper has already advised Clinton and Obama that unilaterally pulling apart NAFTA may result in the unilateral Canadian review of the US-Canada oil supply deal. Its instructive to remember the oil is on the Canadian side of the border...

The Obama bubble will burst, its just a question of whether it happens before or after November.

A smooth talking lightweight. No more, no less.

destroying thousands of peoples livelihoods or just lying to get votes?either one is acceptable to the leftards (on either side of the border) the only thing that isn't acceptable is not bowing to the church of leftardism. besides any lies or damage to the economy can later be justified by blaming Bush.

Canian left is always whinging about free trade; they never seem to notice their counterparts in the U.S. say the same thing, but they're complaining about Canada.

Free trade is another topic, in addition to identity politics, where liberals cannibalize themselves with their own hypocrisy. However the MSM will not pick up on this, only Pajamas media will and SDA blogs will.

Chrétien campaigned in 1993 on opening up NAFTA and reversing the GST. Once in office he reversed positions on both. The MSM said nothing about the deception.

In this article, substitute Ontario for Ohio and McGuinty for Hill-Bama. They all have to play to their union base because they are bankrupt on global economic policies. But that backfires when you take into account that manufacturing is actually increasing in the USA, it is manufacturing employment that is decreasing due to productivity increases.

So smarter methods and workers are what make America globally competitive. That productivity must not be handicapped by the Democrats or they will cause the productivity impediments that McGuinty has caused … for example with his high taxes on business capital ...capital is a scarce resource that should be encouraged not taxed.

It is quite fascinating to watch the similarities of the hypocrisy of liberalism on both sides of the border.

Skip, it's also instructive to remember that the New York State National Guard has more guys and better stuff than the -entire- Canadian Armed Forces, and they can drive up to Ottawa in a couple hours. Let us not forget Clinton 1 launched cruise missiles at a foreign nation to cover for an Oval Office BJ, imagine what Hitlery might do for oil.

As far as NAFT goes, I was under the impression that the Americans took 90% of the manufacturing jobs in Ontario and moved them to Ohio, Georgia, and etc. It is therefore OBVIOUSLY Canada's fault those jobs were then outsourced to Chicomland for pennies on the dollar.

All we have left up here is GM and Ford, both of whom are flirting with insolvency. The ONLY reason they are still here is the Auto Pact, or they'd be gone too. Bombardier in Quebec is essentially a crown corporation, they'd be dead without constant government cash. Dofasco is German owned. Stelco is being bought out by US Steel, and is a tottering corpse anyway. Massey Ferguson and White Farm Equipment are dead, long since killed and stripped for parts by Conrad Black. (Jail looks good on him.)

I could go on. Now Lefties, I want you to pay particular attention to this part: against this backdrop of companies fleeing Ontario and Quebec for the USA, both your DemocRat candidates are blaming NAFTA for the loss of -American- jobs. Making them horrific liars, not to belabor the point too hard.

You want to elect people that bad at lying?

Hillary and Obama, a pair of losers. Obama the snake oil salesman flogging change, Hillary with tears on tap flogging experience.
The MSM are so enthralled with the 'Rats they have no time for the GOP, too civilized, too much substance.
Does anyone know what either Obama or Hillary really stand for or does it matter? After all they're only vying for the Leadership of the most powerful country in the free world. That's a fact the MSM is missing in their narrow scope.

The Phantom> Well Said!

The eastern teat suckers have never liked NAFTA just because of Mulroney. The ELB's, eastern liberal bastards/bitches, have whined about it for years, hopefully you may get your wish. Instead of whining about not enough pay for your lack of productivity the whine will change to I need a job, any job. Then you can try feeding yourselves on all your superior social programs. I wonder which one would tast the best?

The up side is all the free thinking do something get up and go types would move West. The remainder can freeze in the dark in both languages.

Ontarians should note that auto sector jobs will gravitate to the US naturally because the decline of the US dollar has made US labour more competitive in the world market.

There will be plenty more layoffs in the central Canadian manufacturing sector until labour costs are more competitive.

Once Ontarians with a work ethic move out west, as Western Canadian points out, expect an increase in the percentage on Ontarians in the redistribution industry, running welfare programs for those who believe work is beneath them.

You can already hear it in Parliament, where the Liberals are becoming the Bloc Ontario, whining about what Canada is doing for Ontario as loudly as the self-centred Bloc Quebecois has done for decades.

Whine, whine, whine.

It speaks to the bankruptcy of modern liberal ideology that such economically illiterate, simple-minded pap can have credibility. One almost doesn't know where to begin. Are Obama and Clinton simply playing to the crowd, i.e. outright lying to their electoral base in the interest of gaming votes or, more frighteningly, do they actually believe this nonsense? Having drawn up the economic drawbridges, whence will come the raw materials and components for the products they will manufacture and at what added cost? Given the higher cost to added value (if any) of the products to whom will they be sold? Who will provide the funds to protect the protected? What will happen to the standards of living of the protectors who will necessarily have to give an increasing portion of their earnings to the protected? What will happen to the competitiveness of the protectors as their costs are driven up by having to buy from the protected? Since they're going to return to the protectionist mind set of the early 1930s will they go all the way and get America back onto the gold standard? If not, why not? It's mind boggling that in the early 21st century people as prosperous as north americans can yet be so ill educated wrt economics and economic history that they can be gulled by such nonsense. It's a further irony that the Democratic and Republican parties have again, slowly over time, undergone such a policy reversal since at one time it was the Republicans (think of the Lincoln Tariff) who were the arch protectionists!

Painting all from Ontario with a broad brush is neither useful or accurate. I have been their many times -- in general, great people !!

The Media would love an E-W Canadian quarrel and will actively initiate and promote one to sell papers. Please cool it.

We need Mexican goods about as much as we need Chinese goods...and we need Mexican migration ( as envisaged by the NAU policy docs) about as much as we need Sharia law migrating here.

Why is it an all or nothing deal with these poois...we can have equitable mutually beneficial trade without selling out the farm to cheap Mex labor or Chinese tax-free slave goods. Trade with economic equals is sensible trading with nations which have an unfair economic advantage is suicide for our own self sufficiency.

The proponents of transnational globalism who push these ridiculously mismatched trade deals are either wittingly or unwittingly making nations co-dependent or reliant rather than independent.

"It's mind boggling that in the early 21st century people as prosperous as north americans can yet be so ill educated wrt economics and economic history that they can be gulled by such nonsense." DrD

Simple. Because the Media Dumbs-Down the news.

Hillary and Obama are playing the Protectionist Card.

While it may win elections, it can also cause Great Depressions. (Back then it was the Republican's Smoot-Halley that did the trick.

American are our friends, right?
As the US economy spins out of control, their open border policies flood their economy with millions of illegal immigrants that their infrastructure can’t support along with lower wages, infectious diseases and crime as the reward. The great American sell off has been going on for years amongst the depletion of natural resources with emphasis on fresh water and lumber. How long will it be before the eyeball makes a slow rotation North?
I’ll rephrase the first statement American are our friends! Their presidents are not!

"It's mind boggling that in the early 21st century people as prosperous as north americans can yet be so ill educated wrt economics and economic history that they can be gulled by such nonsense."

Doc,

It may be mind boggling, but it is quite obvious why this is so. The hard left has long ago seized the education industry in both the US and Canada. the most inept, socialistic fools in our society are the ones who have been educating our kids for the past two generations. What do you expect when the curriculum is a steady beat of failed socialist values and the spirit-destroying indoctrination of politically correct directives.

I can say that one trait that need not be taught is tolerance. The fact that we have always been lied to cheated and robbed by our politicians and that the majority still believes in them is evidence that unlimited tolerance of our political class is here to stay.

Despite the rants of Obama and the Hillbillies, there will be no change that will benefit anyone. The only change we ever see at the top are the names of our leading liars and the methods they use to rob us of our freedoms and our wealth.

Bingo John West>

I would just rephrase one word in your statement

"educating our kids"

Indoctrinate
Brainwash
Program
Mentally abuse

And one day the fog and smoke cleared and lo and behold there stood Obama and Clinton before us, their stark nakedness revealed when Americans suddenly and shakenly remembered all their jobs went to China. ooops.

Re the complete takeover of our educational institutions by unquestioning leftism—e.g., blatant propaganda—you’ve got it, John West and Knight 99.

“The halls are alive with the sound of . . . ”: people like Martin Luther King: no mention that he was a committed Christian and that his faith was the foundation of his actions. (No mention, either of the British law makers and engineers who actually built this democratic country, which would later welcome many black immigrants.) . . . people like David Suzuki . . . and Rosemary Brown, and Stephen Lewis, and any other lefty going.

The takeover is complete. There is no chink in the armour: the public boards’ so-called “Equity Policies”, like the HRCs’ Section 13, are used to condemn, minus due process—Public Board Henchpeople: “What the heck is THAT?”—any employee who doesn’t toe the party line.

Penalties? 1) Re-education sessions, run by the Shirlene McGoverns of the teaching profession (sic): doctrinaire fellow teachers in the Equity Department, who assume the “guilty” teacher is . . . um . . . guilty and in need of reprogramming. 2) Loss of pay. 3) Hearsay complaints made to, and accepted by, the College of Teachers, which also assumes the “guilt” of the person reported. 4) Arbitrary removal from one’s classroom, minus any charge: that may come weeks later. 5) Arbitrary reassigning of teachers to trouble spot schools. 6) Blacklisting of reassigned teachers who, with impeccable credentials, find it impossible to find a new assignment via the interview process. 7) Teacher appraisals used as a political tool to discredit teachers. Etc.

I don’t lightly call the public boards “gulags”.

Knight99 at 11:13 am, Thank you sir. I just call's em as I see's em.

The one really notable thing about ALL the DemocRat campaigns this year is that none of them have addressed any of the problems facing the USA right now. The two most pressing problems I can see are their trade balance and the behavior of their business and finance community.

They export a tenth of what they import, that is not good. Emptying the country of money is what that is.

The whole commercial paper/sub-prime loan fiasco is basically a check kiting scam on a grand scale. You make loans to people who most likely can't or won't pay them back, then your SELL the note to some schmuck, who then turns around and sells it to some other schmuck, like musical chairs. Well, the music just stopped, and latest estimates are 600 billion worth of damage from the bad paper. That's about what the WTC bombing cost. Now they've gotta eat that.

Due to what? IMMORALITY. You promise to pay money, you pay it. You sell somebody a loan, it should either be a sound loan or you should warn the guy what the risk actually is. ie, you don't lie and steal.

I'm not a big fan of churches, but I am a big fan of moral behavior. You can't legislate it, but you can TALK about it and cheer on the good examples.

I don't hear much about that from the DemocRats. Too judgmental for 'em, I guess. Or maybe they can't tell people lying is bad with a straight face.

"I’ll rephrase the first statement American are our friends! Their presidents are not!" -- Knight 99

We absolutely are your friends.

Our problem is that government is not our friend.

I think the United States has a pretty good government. It is certainly one of the best governments of the world, if not the best.

I would give it a C.

So in my opinion, the governments that exist in our world never really rise above a C in the best of cases. Down here we worry about whether government is our friend, and we are the Americans. "He who governs best governs least."

WL Mackenzie Redux,
the illegal alien problem in the US is outrageous; however, there are some things about this issue less widely known.

The inaction of the federal government has forced state and municipal governments to become more aggressive in laws and enforcement.

In Oklahoma state laws have become so prohibitive to illegals that they're all heading for Texas. Arizona's laws have become so restrictive that the Sonoran school system in Mexico now complains that the return of their children from the US is overflowing their school system.

In Farmers Branch, Texas, laws are being crafted that would penalize rental property owners for knowingly renting to illegals.

Down here, this is still a huge issue, but you would not get a picture of what is occurring interally from even an astute perusal of national news.

There is a long distance to go dealing with this issue, but our Congressmen and municipal governments are on notice, and they are taking action. So the 'illegal' problem does not quite have the sweeping ubiquity that federal inaction would suggest.

By the way, get a load of this: in Texas, right now Republicans are gearing up to go vote for Hillary Clinton, because we want to keep as much dissension going in the Democratic Party for as long as possible. It would be nice if their convention was riddled with controvery, acrimony, and accusation.

As far as I'm concerned, the US and Canada are one people, divided by the imposition of various governments.

P.S. One might wonder where the unions are re protecting the rights of their teachers, who pay them very big bucks.

Well, being every bit as left wing as the boards they're dealing with (and most union apparatchiks aspiring to administrative positions after their terms are up), the unions are loathe to do anything radical—e.g., insist on due process—for any accused teacher. The total caving to political correctness and the abandonment of their constituency by the teachers’ unions is a scandal.

The idea at SDA and other conservative sites that teachers think their unions are the cat’s meow is simply not true. Yes, teachers “vote”—most don’t—for their union members, but most have no clue who these people are. “It’s the teachers’ fault then,” one might conclude. However, the system’s not set up for teachers to be hands on. First of all, there are usually hundreds/thousands of teachers in a given board. Gatherings to meet candidates are often far from most teachers’ schools/homes and are outside school hours. Teachers are overburdened with unreasonable curriculum expectations (and I SUPPORT no dumbing down), useless paperwork, a critical mass of rude and unsupportive pupils, parents, and principals, and many have families to care for. Like most riding associations, where only a handful of people vote for the candidates for Parliament, the same happens with the teachers’ unions, where the NDP mindset has been cast in iron for the past 30 years.

'The Age Of Turbulence' by Alan Greenspan -- explains a lot.

Such as why the Latte-Left in the West picked up the torch after the Centrally Planned Economies failed so dramatically by implosion of their own accord 20 years ago.

Utopia, by raising the Protectionist Drawbridge -- as professed by Universities, Public schools, O&H, and of course our beloved MSM.

The proponents of transnational globalism who push these ridiculously mismatched trade deals are either wittingly or unwittingly making nations co-dependent or reliant rather than independent.

Alberta and Ontario trade freely, and both benefit; where the benefits are mismatched, it's pretty clearly because of distortions introduced by Government that restrict free trade -- the Wheat Board, e.g. In the process they become codependent. Either would be a lot worse off if they didn't have the other to trade with.

The same is true of Montana and New York, or Indiana and California. We differ a lot in details, and even more in the rhetoric, but at root both Canada and the U.S. are more customs unions than anything else. And if Saskatchewan can trade with Quebec to the benefit of both, why couldn't, say, Alberta and Texas? Or Newfoundland and Osaka Prefecture, or Arizona and Moldavia? Or even the collectives "Canada", "The US", and "China"?

The point, the end game, of free trade is to make everybody co-dependent. The very existence of our two Federal Republics is existential evidence that it (a) is possible and (b) works to everybody's advantage. The only people free trade does not advantage are the wannabee oligarchs selling Canadian or American "identity" at a high enough price to give them the lifestyle they aspire to, and the freeloaders who believe that having achieved something once entitles them to it until the Sun gutters out.

This is not to say nobody feels pain who shouldn't, or that those folks shouldn't get some support. But throwing out the baby with the bath-water is not a solution to either overpopulation or water pollution.

Regards,
Ric

Greg in Dallas>

The redistribution of the problem is not Texas’s cross to bear alone!

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/story.html?id=eb24c2f6-7372-4da6-abdc-806fad175d18&k=57287

I agree with you 100% we need to work on this together united as states and countries with common goals and ideals.

Navarrette makes a great point. If the U.S. wants to enter into new trade deals, the first thing they must do is keep to the ones they are in now. Countries will be reluctant to negotiate with the U.S. if the U.S. is seen as not taking its agreements seriously.

The State of California ran into this when they began unilaterally breaking deals for natural gas when it was opportune for them to do so. They paid the price, however, when they went to sign new deals, and eventually it resulted in an energy crisis with rolling brown outs. Governor Brown blamed the oil companies for the crisis, but California did it to itself.

I love how people (a) complain about all the manufacturing jobs being exported out of the North Americas, on the one hand, (b) prostrate before the twin alters of free market capitalism and global neoliberalism, on the other, and (c) never draw the rather short line that connects A to B.

Lookout, you should sent your excellent and informative posts also to John Snobelen at the Toronto Sun. Your inside view of the problems with school boards and their leftist mantra would give added support to John with his ongoing battles with Ontario's education bureaucrats and their leftist supporters. His columns on the powerful teachers unions and their impact on our children's education stir a hornet's nest of teachers attacking him with comments in the Toronto Sun. These perpetual whiners jump all over him with their personal sob stories of how hard done by they are.

john.snowbelen@sunmedia.ca

If either Barack or Hillary manage to steal the election, their best move would be to immediately annex Canada, and almost as immediately give Canadians the vote. Four years from now, Canadians would (stupidly, of course) vote overwhelmingly in favor of the Democrats, garandamnteeing their re-election. If the Dems haven't thought of this, they're even dumber than I thought.

Ric Locke, while I agree with most of what you said, there is one point on which you are certainly incorrect. When you referred to "two Federal Republics", it appears that you were referring to the USA and Canada. While the USA is a republic, Canada is a constitutional monarchy. That makes a huge difference in the division of power within the government structure.

"I love how people (a) complain about all the manufacturing jobs being exported out of the North Americas, on the one hand, (b) prostrate before the twin alters of free market capitalism and global neoliberalism, on the other, and (c) never draw the rather short line that connects A to B."

Um, if you're going to stand on the barricades and harangue the masses, we should hope you'd be more circumspect about displaying your grammatical and economic shortcomings. To wit:

1. Contrary to what you state above, there is only one "North America." Fun fact: Mexico is generally considered, both geographically and politically, to be part of North America.

2. Your spelling needs some tweaking. It's "twin ALTARS of...."

3. What the hell is "global neoliberalism?" Gee, that sounds awfully like, oh y'know, "international Jewish conspiracy." But we all know you're not an antisemite...are you?

4. The alleged "short line between A and B" exists only in the space between your ears. I cordially encourage you to sign up for college-level economic courses, which should, in short order, enlighten you considerably on how the world really works.

Markj

What drives you to rudely corner someone over a few lapses in grammar, geography, etc, there M8? It's amazing what the distance between a monitor and real human contact can do to what normally would be a civilized conversation.

And you are sadly misguided if you think taking an economics course or two, or even a doctorate in my case, will enlighten anyone on how the world really works, economics or otherwise... and it especially won't help explain behavior like yours.

Sheesh.

Cheers!

Leto

western canadian, set you free,

Quick: Name the province with the biggest spending per capita on nanny-state socialist programs.

Answer: Alberta. It spends far more per capita than any province in Canada (not including the territories.)

Warwick >

“Answer: Alberta. It spends far more per capita than any province in Canada (not including the territories.)”
Possibly there’s very good reason for that!………..
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2004/07/12/albertadebt_040712.html
Here’s a link that you can pass onto your Liberal provincial government.
http://www.finance.gov.ab.ca/business/debt/debtmanagement.html
Just saying……….

Warwick >

“Answer: Alberta. It spends far more per capita than any province in Canada (not including the territories.)”

Possibly there’s very good reason for that!………..
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2004/07/12/albertadebt_040712.html

Here’s a link that you can pass onto your Liberal provincial government.

http://www.finance.gov.ab.ca/business/debt/debtmanagement.html

Just saying……….