CEOs Sell Out The Nation

Martin knows what Canadians want, and that is almost certainly why he didn't want to consult them. Poll after poll reveals that Canadians have different values than Americans, and those differences mean we want less integration with the U.S., not more. Bay Street's annexation initiative is led by Tom d'Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, made up of the CEOs of Canada's 150 most powerful corporations. It was called the Business Council on National Issues until the CEOs decided, given that they were all global operators, that there were no national issues and changed their name. D'Aquino and his partners in a corporate task force, former deputy prime minister John Manley and former finance minister Michael Wilson, tell us that by integrating ever more into the U.S. we will somehow guarantee our prosperity, creating fortress North America to compete with China, Europe, and other competitors. The real story is a little different. It goes back to the “leap of faith” in free trade recommended by a federal commission in the 1980s. We took the leap and have been paying ever since. We suffer constant trade harassment. We lost 280,000 of our best jobs, forever. We “restructured” our economy to be competitive with the U.S. and now have the second-highest percentage of low-paying jobs in the developed world. On top of that, Industry Canada tells us that 91 per cent of our increased trade with the U.S. had nothing to do with the Free Trade Agreement but was driven by our cheap dollar and the U.S. boom. The fact is that the FTA failed even from the point of view of Bay Street. Peter Nicholson, one of its principal gurus, a former Scotiabank vice president and a personal adviser to Paul Martin, summed up the failure. Supporters of the FTA, Nicholson said, thought it would “cause Canadian firms to pull up their socks and compete in the North American market.” Instead, many companies adjusted to the FTA “by simply moving across the border taking the path of least resistance.” Here, then, is the real story behind “deep integration.” Canada's business class simply cannot compete with its U.S. counterpart. They refuse to pay for the necessary research and development, refuse to train their workers, are constantly begging for more tax cuts, and are notoriously risk-averse. As well, Canadian companies are eager to simply sell out to U.S. corporations. Since 1989, more than 95 per cent of foreign investment in Canada has gone to buying up Canadian companies. Head offices are pouring over the border. continued here: http://www.rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=38634