Continental Merger

President Bush evaded the questions and punched at straw men of his own making. “You know, there are some who would like to frighten our fellow citizens into believing that relations between us are harmful for our respective peoples,” he said. “I just believe they’re wrong. I believe it’s in our interest to trade; I believe it’s in our interest to dialogue.” None of the summit critics, of course, had even remotely implied that the United States cease relations, trade, or dialogue with Canada and Mexico; those are legitimate, constitutionally permitted activities that our government and our peoples carry on (and have engaged in since our nation’s founding) not only with our next-door neighbors to the north and south, but with virtually every country on Earth. “I’m amused by some of the speculation, some of the old — you can call them political scare tactics,” President Bush continued. “If you’ve been in politics as long as I have, you get used to that kind of technique where you lay out a conspiracy and then force people to try to prove it doesn’t exist.” Prime Minister Harper also chose to respond with ridicule, joking that opponents of the SPP process were getting all worked up over something that was no more serious than candy regulations. “Is the sovereignty of Canada going to fall apart if we standardize the jellybeans?... I don’t think so,” Mr. Harper chortled. Opponents of the SPP, however, are worked up about far more than trade, dialogue, and jellybeans. As Bush, Harper, Calderon, and their aides met away from public scrutiny, leaders representing a coalition of more than 50 conservative organizations in the United States and Canada held a press conference at the Ottawa Marriott to deliver very serious warnings about the developing “partnership,” which they claim is an unconstitutional scheme for economic and political merger of the three countries. “Our message,” said Howard Phillips, chairman of the Coalition to Block the North American Union, “is ‘President Bush, President Calderon, Prime Minister Harper, tear down the wall of silence and let the people see what you are scheming to do.’” Mr. Phillips, who is also founder and chairman of the Conservative Caucus, stated at the coalition’s Ottawa news conference: “Behind closed doors, step by step, the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the United States are setting the stage for, first, a North American Community and, ultimately, a North American Union (NAU), in which new transnational bodies would gain authority over our economy, our judiciary, and our lawmaking institutions.” John F. McManus, president of the John Birch Society and a founding member of the Coalition to Block the North American Union, charged that the political elites are planning a duplicate of the European Union for our own hemisphere. Who’s Telling the Truth? So, is the SPP a harmless (or even beneficial) trilateral effort aimed at improving relations, trade, and dialogue with Canada and Mexico, which has been wildly misrepresented by “conspiracy nuts,” as President Bush claims? Or is the SPP actually a scheme to create an EU-style North American Union that will gradually submerge U.S. sovereignty into regional institutions, erase our borders, and terminate our constitutional republic, as its critics claim? The Security and Prosperity Partnership for North America was formally launched in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005 by President Bush, along with Mexico’s then-President Vicente Fox and Canada’s then-Prime Minister Paul Martin. The three leaders let it be known that their new SPP initiative was an effort to build upon and expand NAFTA, the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. Their expressed goal for the SPP was the creation of “a safer, more prosperous North America.” Conceived completely as an executive-branch initiative, without any participation or authorization from Congress, the SPP established 20 trilateral “working groups” composed of current and former government officials, academics, and corporate leaders. The groups are directed to bring about continental “integration” on a wide range of political, economic, and social issues, such as manufacturing, transportation, energy, environment, e-commerce, financial services, food and agriculture, law enforcement, immigration, infrastructure, and health. Who are the members of these working groups? Where and when are they meeting? What policies, programs, projects, and proposals are they hatching? How will these things affect our lives? Lots more at: http://www.thenewamerican.com/node/5807 [Proofreader’s note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on October 9, 2007]

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