Not what one might think:
William Watson: U.S. created Trudeau
…the option of picking up and moving to the United States no longer really exists for most Canadians. The first legal limits on entry to the United States came in the mid-1920s, though we were essentially exempted from them. But in 1965, the United States changed its immigration laws and did make Canadians part of a small annual quota for migrants from the western hemisphere. Turnabout was fair play: we had increased our restrictions on American immigration in 1962.
In Closing the 49th Parallel, a fascinating new paper in the academic journal Canadian Public Policy, the Canadian economists Stanley Winer of Carleton University and James Davies of the University of Western Ontario argue that the Americans’ decision to foreclose the possibility of an easy escape to the United States created a captive tax base for the Canadian politicians of the 1960s and 1970s and lowered the political cost to them from raising taxes and building up the Canadian welfare state…
And once again, restrictions on immigration are big government’s biggest friend.
It will save us billions.
An American/Canadian Northwest 49th Parallel Territorial fence will no longer be necessary..
In this case, migration. The main objection many of us non-professionals have concerning NAFTA,is the non-mobility of workers.
As a tradesman,in the 1990’s,when B.C. was languishing under the NDP, my Union called with a number of seasonal jobs in California,but I wasn’t allowed to take them under the U.S. immigration laws.
Same situation today.
How did the American draft dodgers fit into this scheme?
And I always thought that it was some mad scientist in a Bavarian castle (with requisite lightning and storming going on) that created turdo.
Dr. Demerais perhaps?
I dunno, it never stopped me from sneaking into the US in that era, working illegally there and living there for almost two years. I simply gave my Canadian SIN number when they asked for my U.S. Social Security — they have the same number of digits.
But the author’s hypothesis is interesting — I wonder if Justin knows about it: “Pierre was just a pawn of the Yanks” must throw a real monkey-wrench into the gears of our official historians.
Never was a fan of blaming someone else for one’s own stupidity. Trudeau was a creation of the two old Canadas. Upper and Lower Canada looked out upon their domains and dreamed a dream that they could rape the west, molly coddle the east and live on easy street by being the UN’s bum boy. Trudeau was their man to implement the plan. What’s more it almost worked.
You people continue to misspell the name “Turdeau”.
ricardo >
“I dunno, it never stopped me from sneaking into the US in that era, working illegally…”
Geez keep making comments like that and people are going to start thinking you’re a Latino or something.
Free trade has been largely a fraud perpetrated upon the public to allow corporate flooding of Canadian markets with US goods (which never fully developed because of crappy US productivity and dollar performance and China’s mercantilist hegemony) and gain cheap access to Canadian resource commodities (which does occur but on a much smaller scale than envisioned because of the US economic meltdown). It has not benefited the average citizen one stinking bit. 20 years after Muldoom’s big legacy of free trade the average citizen has more hassle immigrating, visiting and purchasing US goods. Tax and duty are still stifling personal import and export. Do you get the idea yet you were conned? Are you starting to understand free trade was not about you or for you?
Same for globalism – another trade and economic amalgam that has proven a deindustrializing disaster. The current global crisis is directly the result of globalism’s interdependent economics. When will we realize all these top level international trade and economic deals are not being made by old fashioned capitalists but hegemonic central planning monopolists?
“Geez keep making comments like that and people are going to start thinking you’re a Latino or something.”
Ironic, ’cause I’m technically “Latino” due to European ancestry but I’m actually Caucasian. And I worked in a factory in the U.S. that employed mostly Mexican “wetbacks” — I used to joke that I was a “Canadian wetback”. I stood out like a sore thumb because I was the only White guy. Lots of fun times in the ’60’s though — the Mexicans were a great bunch of people and very accepting.
Occam,
Free Trade with the U.S. has been a blessing. In the 80’s my family would drive to Minot, ND from Regina and it was like visiting the future.
We used to load the trunk up with cans of Diet Coke and Pringles. It was like a Soviet border run.
Free Trade has been a blessing.
Canadians are doubly blessed to be next to the USA. Not only are we the envy of the world by being beside the largest market, but our politicians have been restrained in order to compete in that free market. Even though we have no constitutional protection for property rights, we remain quite free. It took 30 years to recover from our last Trudeau, but without property rights, we may not recover from our next Trudeau (and I don’t necessarily mean Justin).
Nope, that is just not the way I see it.’Turdo’ was diffidently a socialist commie before he even entered politics.
Those clowns couldn’t even spell Sir John A. Macdonald’s name right.
The restriction of free movement came about because the Liberals as is implied, wanted to box Canadians in. Using the CBC they created an atmosphere of Anti-Americanism, while using the law in cahoots with a Judiciary to restrict Canadians of choice in where to live. We see this most plainly in Canadian content laws of 40%. Even worse than the Communist Countries in the cold war. Its why the liberals kept the dollar down as well. Quebec is a good example of this micromanagement to stop anyone coming in while using entitlements to keep them in.
I glanced at Watson’s article. He’s someone who is usually bang on when it comes to economic issues.
However, to claim that U. S. policy was wholly responsible for the depredations of the Trudeau era is a mighty big stretch. It might have been a minor contributing factor at the very most.
At its root, the process of destruction was and is ideological: the government-as-instrument-of-perfection cult derived from false philosophy, namely that of Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel.
I think the saddest part is that my great grandfather moved from the Dakotas to Alberta at the turnbeginning of the 20th century to avoid the latest craze in North Dakota, voting Progressive!
“…the government-as-instrument-of-perfection cult derived from false philosophy, namely that of Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel.
Posted by: nv53 at October 1, 2011 7:31 PM
Maybe so, but Trudeau’s inspiration came from a pair of fellows named Marx and Engels.
Occam- whatever you think of trade with the US to date, if Obama stays in power, huge amounts of capital will leave the US for Canada, which should increase the benefit side of the accounting.
ricardo >
“…the Mexicans were a great bunch of people and very accepting.”
Good comeback.
I like average Mexican’s too, also include some black people, gays, and Muslims I have known in my lifetime. The biggest difference I’ve found is that cultures generally do not mix, some more so than others. I find the best people are non minorities in whatever cultural arena they reside, Mexicans in Mexico for example.
Issues from petty spats to physical violence will always occur between cultures, races, minority groups “wanting to change the status quo” and immigration for a plethora of reasons. There is nothing wrong with individual nationalities, cultures and races wanting to protect their individual identities within their borders. I believe it’s healthy and beneficial not only for the group, but for the diversity of options globally, both politically and economically. Unfortunately this celebrated diversity is not extended to European White cultures which has being aggressively targeted by manipulation for subjugation by other cultures, via * races, white apologists & progressive idealists with mental illness.
*(Race based Religious fanatics, racial entitlement seekers, racial jealousy).
In a nutshell, “Good fences make for good neighbours” and we have none. This is the sad situation the indigenous white European west now finds itself. The survival of western culture is wholly dependent on its foundational principles, which are being stripped away for the benefit of a few and to the detriment of everyone else. Including other races, religions, sexual orientations, etcetera…………