Tuesday, May 08, 2007

SPP : Securing Prosperity for the Plutocracy

You just gotta love The Fraser Institute.
In their ironically named new report, "International Leadership by a Canada Strong and Free", The Fraser Institute attempts to do for Canada/US deep integration what Last Tango in Paris did for ass-fucking : make it acceptable.

The main thrust of their argument is that Canada should become the world's leading proponent of free trade by boldly throwing open our economy and resources to the US. They explain that the other countries aren't really worth bothering with.

Some exact quotes from the first 75 pages of this fawning lubricant, written by Fraser Institute Senior Fellows Mike Harris, ex-premier of Ontario, and Preston Manning, formerly of the Alliance/Reform Party :

~ Deepening integration with the US economy must be on the agenda as the best way for Canadians to increase our trade, prosperity, and leadership potential.

~For Canada, Mexico’s presence at the NAFTA table is no reason to avoid action on our urgent national interest in pursuing a formal structure to manage irreversible economic and security integration with the United States.

~The 2005 Security and Prosperity Initiative adopted by Prime Minister Martin and President Bush and confirmed by the Harper government a year later laid a promising foundation. Both governments now receive regular status reports on its implementation. The earlier Smart Border Accord gave security and access to the United States a higher priority than before September 11. Both, however, operate within existing laws and policies and are therefore limited in scope. Extracting the full benefit of deeper integration requires a more ambitious initiative.

~ The federal government should revisit the decision not to participate in the Ballistic Missile Defence program

~The central importance of good US-Canada relations to Canada’s interests across virtually every domestic and international issue requires that the federal government make that relationship its highest international priority.

~ In order to facilitate the integrated coordination of their two economies, the two governments need to create a customs union involving a common external tariff, a joint approach to the treatment of third-country goods, a fully integrated energy market, a common approach to trade remedies, and an integrated government procurement regime.

~Government has no place in the decision-making of Canadian consumers, importers, or exporters.

~The tradition of subordinating bilateral cooperation with the United States to the broader North Atlantic Alliance is no longer sustainable.

~If Canadians wish to contribute to global peace and security they can only do so effectively as partners with the United States.

~There is much to be said for Canada and the United States developing a North American energy security accord that looks at the best way to develop and distribute the continent’s resources to the benefit of people on both sides of the border.

Please feel free to make liberal use of the above exact quotes in your letters and phone calls to CBC the next time they interview anyone from The Fraser Institute as an expert on free trade or Canada/US relations.
Probably best not to mention the ass-fucking though.

15 comments:

Q said...

They might get away with it on a Saturday night, when everyone's more relaxed, make us a nice dinner,bottle of wine, a little tax cut massage and ease it in slowly.

Alison said...

Q! Je t'adore.

RossK said...

Oh gosh.

And now the Pressed Man is giving it to us on the Ceeb.

The horror!

.

Boris said...

You know, if the United States were 90% smaller in population, and had a similar political landscape and economy to Canada, I might conditionally support a form of "deep integration" like MERCOSUR or the EU. It makes a certain sense from an adaptive management standpoint. But seeing as they're not ten times smaller and have a domestic and foreign policy analogous (no pun intended) with the aftermath of ass-fucking, I think the answer presents itself.

Anonymous said...

"~Government has no place in the decision-making of Canadian consumers, importers, or exporters.

~The tradition of subordinating bilateral cooperation with the United States to the broader North Atlantic Alliance is no longer sustainable.

~If Canadians wish to contribute to global peace and security they can only do so effectively as partners with the United States."

Traitors. And they call the Bloc a separatist party!

Anonymous said...

What is in it for these assholes that they are willing to sell us out?

How can shackeling ourselves to Dead Empire Walking be good for us?

The U.S. is morally and economically bankrupt and certainly not the kind of country I want a union with. They want our oil, metals, water, and good credit rating to cover their mismanagement and debt.

"If Canadians wish to contribute to global peace and security they can only do so effectively as partners with the United States."

Who is going to give us peace and security from the very rat fucks they want to merge with?

This started by scaring me, but now I'm Pissed off and I want to stomp someone. The Libs signed this load of crap agreement and the Cons are using it to sell us off. That just leaves us two choices one of which is two busy rubbing Harpers feet at night to fight for us.

ARRGGGGGG!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Bastards.

Relentlessly Progressive Economics describes the effects of regulatory cooperation.
"...The asymmetrical power relationship means we lower our standards, although there is nothing that says we need to do so. If anything we should be adopting a more precautionary approach, better funding our regulatory agencies, and cooperating with regimes like the EU that do indeed have higher regulatory standards..."

Anonymous said...

"~Government has no place in the decision-making of Canadian consumers, importers, or exporters."

And these jerks do not believe that citizens are anything other than "consumers, importers, or exporters."

Bastards. Utter bastards.

Thanks, Alison, and I will write to this, but I'm coping with something personal.

Ti-Guy said...

Fascist pricks.

~Government has no place in the decision-making of Canadian consumers, importers, or exporters.

Yes...that's best left to think tanks and corporations that are free from any kind of meaningful scrutiny and democratic oversight.

What a bastard Manning is turning out to be. Mike Harris always was, so no surprise here.

West End Bob said...

"If Canadians wish to contribute to global peace and security they can only do so effectively as partners with the United States."

Yeah, when I think of bush and dickhead cheney that's exactly how I picture global peace and security . . . .

Loved Green Assassin Brigade's "Dead Empire Walking" terminology, BTW.

Steve V said...

I saw Manning speak on CBC. It was actually frightening to listen to the rhetoric, and I thought to myself this is the radical Preston that so often gets lost in the stately little reformer. He reminds me of Pat Buchanan, and sounds just as crazy. Thank christ he didn't jump into the premier race.

Jennifer Smith said...

You know, every time I watch Paul Gross' 'H2O', it looks less and less like absurd dystopian fantasy and more like Harper's memoirs somehow transported from the future.

Now excuse me while I try to get a straight answer out of my MP on where he really stands on this crap.

Anonymous said...

There's word on some of the blogs about a Con tantrum at the committee hearings on SPP:

Accidental Deliberations

1337hax0r

and maybe others, I haven't looked...

Anonymous said...

It appears the Conservatives are playing games in other committees:

Globe & Mail

"A Conservative MP spoke for three hours at a Commons committee Thursday in an apparent attempt to prevent an investigation into why Foreign Affairs officials censored documents about the abuse and torture of Afghan detainees.

Mike Wallace regaled fellow members of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics with details of the federal Access to Information Act for the duration of his address.

His lengthy discourse in a hot room of Parliament's West Block stalled an opposition motion that the committee examine the editing of documents showing that the Harper government knew prisoners held by Afghan security forces faced the possibility of torture, abuse and extra-judicial killing..."

"...The delay tactics at the committee yesterday follow the cancellation of the Commons official languages committee Wednesday where the topic of debate was to have been the Conservative government's cuts to a program that helped fund challenges to discrimination."

Alison said...

Thanks, Holly.
I think Wallace failed to prevent it passing. Will confirm later.

I'm thinking of changing my blog name to "Creekside and HollyStick."
Whaddaya think? ;-)

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