Free Trade Isn't Free

AnschlussRising
TakeOurOilVille


Last week Pat Carney went off the reservation and suggested that Canuckistan should fight back:

"What is there to talk about?" asked Senator Pat Carney, a former trade minister who now represents British Columbia. "We won. The Americans won't abide by the rule of law." That pretty much sums up the sentiment of the entire country.

But an even more subtle statement from Eric Reguly, one of the Globe and (no longer Empire)Mail's above-the-fold business analysts, was an even bigger sign that more and more of those who were previously on the free trade side of the border-line-in-the-sand are starting to realize that Canada could be in big trouble:

"Canada has a nasty habit of losing control over its big industries."

Reguly then goes on to reel off a list of resource industries and even breweries that we have lost control of recently.

He does this to make a point about the change in foreign investment laws, altered US SEC reporting on petroleum reserves, and the possibility that the head of the Cheney Administration could be coming North next week to reluctanly aggree to take the riches of the oil sands off our hands.

Now, for those of you who have watched 'The Sound Of Music' 317 times like I have (majority of viewings when girls have been sick/afflicted with chicken pox), or even if you haven't, you will remember that an Anschluss works best when it is helped along by folks like Herr Zeller:

Herr Zeller: Perhaps those who would warn you that the Anschluss is coming - and it is coming, Captain - perhaps they would get further with you by setting their words to music.
Captain von Trapp: If the Nazis take over Austria, I have no doubt, Herr Zeller, that you will be the entire trumpet section.
Herr Zeller: You flatter me, Captain.
Captain von Trapp: Oh, how clumsy of me - I meant to accuse you.


So who is our Herr Zeller now?

Could it be Ralph Klein?

Or Anne McClellan?

Well, actually, thanks to a very good piece in the Georgia Straight from Charlie Smith, our money is on a fine fellow named Michael Walker.

"U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney is visiting Alberta in early September after he received a special request from Michael Walker, executive director of the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute. Walker, who told the Straight that Cheney has been a fishing buddy for more than a decade, said he finalized the details of the trip during a visit with the vice-president at the White House in June.

“We invited Vice-President Cheney to come to Canada, although I heard yesterday, now, the deputy prime minister [Anne McLellan] is claiming she invited him,” Walker said. “He is coming up for a private visit with myself and another friend of his up in Alberta, where we’ll go off up in a lodge for a variety of purposes.”

And who, we wonder, is that secret 'friend' that is joining the big Mike and the even bigger Dick at that private lodge?

We're not entirely sure, but we can't help but wondering if, in the spirit of the economic annexing of Canada*, it is perhaps a former Enron executive who is promising a new 'kinder' and gentler Terasen Gas.

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*Remember that 'Once the economic levers go....' quote from John Turner oh those so many preCarney-assisted sell-out years ago? Could it one day soon come to trump Mulroney's short term election winner 'You had a choice, sir.' from the same debate by miles and miles once that border is all gone?

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