Frankie Goes To Washington

CreditWhereCreditIsDue
MeaSortaCulpaVille

Back in the spring, when he was making statements that made him sound more like the American Ambassador to Canada rather than the other way around, we took a few shots at Frank McKenna that included reference to his past association with the Carlyle Group.

Paul Willcocks took us to task on that one and, as a result, we promised to watch Mr. McKenna closely and try to comment fairly on his future actions and statements.

So, while it can pretty tough to tell where the straw men are standing in this 'Fortress North America' game, we have to give Mr. McKenna credit for the following:

"Canada's ambassador to the United States says U.S. officials are "going too far" in proposing that Canadian airlines be forced to provide American authorities with passenger lists for domestic flights whose routes happen to pass over U.S. territory.......

Mr. McKenna is convinced the proposed measures, which call for airlines flying over U.S. territory to provide passenger manifests that can be checked against American "no-fly" lists of passengers considered possible terrorist threats, were not primarily aimed at Canadians.

"We're sideswiped" by these measures, he said.

Under the proposals, passengers on purely domestic flights, such as those between the Maritimes and Central Canada or even flights linking Montreal and Toronto, could be subject to U.S. oversight because they routinely fly over American territory for practical geographical reasons.

"I think it's going too far for incidental overflights to be caught up in this increased level of security," he (McKenna) said.

Fair enough. But now let's see how Mr. McKenna does on beef, softwood and NAFTA-assisted healthcare privatization.