The Economics Of Canadian Trade With America

I found the article to be a reasonable summation of the issues. Because of it's correct orientation on the political landscape <p><p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain

It depends where you\'re coming from as a reader, as I said. It is reasonable and useful in a lot of areas, but I prefer not to associate Vive with Mapleleafweb too closely if at all. Our focus is more the Red Tory to progressive side of the spectrum.

ie CD Howe = Satan

I wouldn't consider using them in a point/counterpoint situation to promote discussion as 'association', much like linking to the CBC or Canada.com might do, but; hey, you're the editor! <p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain

Yeah I like how Tom Courchene or whoever it is (the boss) says that even the board fo directors don\'t know where they get their funding from. They also don\'t publish an annual report like they\'re supposed to.

---
"So many right-wing Christians, so few lions." - t-shirt I saw @ school

<P>In the MapleLeaf.com article, Scott Fogden reckons that "between 1988 and 1994, 17% of Canadian manufacturing jobs disappeared." He compares this to the phenomenon of Canadian hockey teams having to pay players in small Canadian dollars, which implies that the jobs, like the players, are going south to the US--or possibly Mexico. But the truth may be more complex. <P><A HREF="http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=324cff524045fbfb2297859fd0e5d515 ">Louis Nevaer, writing about NAFTA's first 10 years</A> confirms that all three NAFTA countries have lost jobs-- approximately 2 million from the US, and about 200,000 each from Mexico and Canada. According to CLC economist, Andrew Jackson, Canada lost over 15,000 manufacturing jobs in September 2003 alone. Why anyone continues to support this catastrophe for any but ideological reasons I don't understand. <P>According to Nevaer, who remains a NAFTA enthusiast, the jobs have gone to China because China supports and protects its manufacturing sector, requires technology transfer by foreign investors, and has kept the value of its currency "artificially" low. <P>Meanwhile, <A HREF="http://allafrica.com/stories/200312170547.html">China has just cancelled the debt of 31 African coutries</A> amounting to a total of $1.27 billion US. The North American press may have missed this bit, but it played well in Cameroon. <P>Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was attending a two-day China-Africa trade summit in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. He promised that China would take steps to continue the expansion of trade, including preferential, zero-tariff trade deals with 34 African countries. Sounds almost like real "free trade." <P>Premier Wen says, "It is all too clear that world peace and development cannot possibly be sustained if the north-south divide grows wider and developing nations grow poorer." <P>Nevaer's solution is for Canada, the US, and Mexico to demand that China live up to its WTO and IMF obligations. <P>This could be an interesting second decade for NAFTA.

SCRAP NAFTA!!! What kind of treasonous trade agreement is this? It is an investment agreement, giving foreign corporations the same, or greater rights, as Canadian citizens. It dictates that Canada must continue to funnel our resources to the USA even ifour own domestic supply is in danger! It also has that evil chapter 11, where governments can be sued for lost profits by corporations if a government \'subsidizes\' an industry or passes a law regulating private industry in some way. NAFTA gives unelected corporate boardrooms power over our country! Chapter 11 of NAFTA will KILL our public health care system if we continue to allow private health care companies to administer \'care\' for profit! I`ve e-mailed many different premiers and two prime ministers now about the danger of NAFTA and chapter 11, and how it will kill our health care system, and other Canadian services. Interestingly, none of these sellouts want to talk about this! I urge everyone here to also e-mail various levels of government raising this concern!

---
Dave Ruston

I agree. Email, and Email , and Email our elected members to stay the course, get off the ship of NAFTA Politics.

ABROGATE NAFTA NOW !! IT IS KILLING OUR NATIONAL WORK FORCE !! Get rid of the FTA, and don\'t even start on the FTAA.

Fire Minister Perrie Petigrew now, and save the country millions of dollars !!

This is a crock !!



---
"Arrogance in Politics is unacceptable"
Jim Callaghan
Minden, Ontario
705-286-1860
www.misterc.ca

I wonder if this site could put together one of those fantastic email action items in this regard. Those are sweet.

---
Darren Olson
--
"We shall be Canadians first, foremost, and always, and our policies will be decided in Canada and not dictated by any other country." - Dief

I like the Dieffenbaker signature, just one question: Did Candians WANT to hurt our prestige and morale, and cancel the Avrow Arrow? (Wondering what you think)

Good question. I beleive that the Avro Arrow project was scrapped due to extreme pressure from the American government. With the Arrow, we showed significant dominance in technological superiority (that sounds redundant). With the Americans embedded in a race for military and space firsts, I feel they felt embarrased that we Canadians had the technology that we did. So they pressure Diefenbaker to scrap the project, destroy all the records and blueprints (ya right), and proceeded to move the now unemployed scientists to Cape Canaveral. To read further on this, check out http://www.angelfire.com/ab/avroarrow/frames.html

Although there are many official reasons that the government say they cancelled the program, I believe that the Americans were very, very aware of what was going on. The fact that many of the scientists were recruited by NASA after the program was scrapped is, in my opinion, the smoking gun.

---
Darren Olson
--
"We shall be Canadians first, foremost, and always, and our policies will be decided in Canada and not dictated by any other country." - Dief

I`ve read about five books on the Avro Arrow, Including Randall Whitcomb`s Avro Aircraft and Cold War Aviation, Arrow Through The Heart- The Crawford Gordon Story, and another book simply called \'Arrow.\' I also saw the movie \'The Arrow\' starring Dan Akroyd as Crawford Gordon. I`ve also done other research, and there`s no doubt that Diefenbaker was heavily pressured by the US government to either hand the Arrow over to them, or cease construction on it and hand over the technology and the scientists and engineers. The government`s argument of the day back in 1959 was that they couldn`t afford the program. This was FALSE! Because after Dief the chief scrapped the Arrow, he quietly purchased about 100 F101 Voodoo fighters from the US, which were barely capable of mach 1 (The Arrow was capable of mach 3 with the Canadian made Iroquois engine) , and the Voodoo`s were vastly INFERIOR to the Arrow in every way! The money the government forked out for these tin cans, they could have built 100 Arrows for that price! Not to mention, Canada`s role in North American defense fell under American command, and Dief signed a \'treaty\' with the US stating that Canada would not build another of it`s own fighter jet, for another 99 years! The US in return threw Canada branch plant aerospace defense jobs in the way of building components for their aerospace endeavours. The cancellation of the Arrow threw 14000 out of work at Avro Canada and another 10000 in jobs that were related to supplying Avro Canada! If the Arrow was still around today, it would STILL be at the front of the pack in fighter jets! The Arrow was a fighter/bomber, which could fly at incredible speeds, and it`s manouverability was even better than tody`s F18 Hornets! The Arrow compares favourably with the new American F22 Raptor jet! The Arrow was the first plane to have a \'fly by wire\' system where it literally with the help of a computer, could fly by itself! Ten years before the cancellation of the Arrow in 1949, Avro Canada also built North America`s first commercial passenger jet, called the \'Jetliner\', which spiked the interest of Howard Hughes. Also, in 1959, Avro Canada had IN THE PLANNING STAGE to fly a better Arrow at Mach5, at 100000 feet! Oh, it wasn`t just the Arrow that had to die. Avro Canada had to go, because Avro, under leadership of Canadian visionary Crawford Gordon, began purchasing key Canadian resources and industries to \'Canadianize\' our own economy, because Gordon back then saw the American encroachment on our economy and sovereignty! This was unacceptable to the US government, who for a long time before this, looked upon Canada as it`s resource hinterland, as opposed to capitalistic competitor. The manifest destiny runs deep in the halls of power in the US!

---
Dave Ruston

Wow Dave, you have done your research, thank you very much for sharing this info, I only knew the basics of the story and this is very helpful, sad very sad, but helpful!