Our Southern neighbour

[Oscar]

Sent for publishing September 15, 2008

To the Editor,

Our Southern Neighbour

Canada will have an election on October 14th. At least one politician has suggested that we Canadians should pay more attention to our own election, and less to the November election in the USA. That would be a mistake. Peter Lougheed, a former popular premier of Alberta, a politician who originally favored the FTA and NAFTA, now has some well-based concerns; here is why. After his appointment by President Bush as the American ambassador to Canada, David H Wilkins invited a few members of the Bush administration and a few Canadians, including Mr.Lougheed, to a barbecue in Calgary. During the discussion on oil, Mr. Lougheed ventured that Canada could sell oil to China. The American guest was shocked. He responded by reminding Mr Lougheed that Canada had a signed agreement [the FTA] with the USA, which included a proportional oil sharing clause. Mr. Lougheed agreed that the clause was part of the FTA, but that would not necessarily mean that Canada could not sell oil to another customer.

Apparently, the exchanges stated above caused Mr. Lougheed some concerns. This led him to make the following statement: " the US will come for Canada's water in a very strong way", and he went on to say that this "strong way" might involve US sanctions against Canada. In
another instance, an American tar sands investor warned that China should understand that the tar sands belong to the US, and that Canadians should realize that too.

In our future, you may visualize shades of at least 9 failed court attempts by American grain interests to discredit the CWB.

To stand up for Canada, our country needs a new Prime Minister -- a leader who does not support the on-going clandestine efforts to structure a North American Union [NAU]. The NAU has the support of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives [CCCE]; they represent 150 of the
largest corporations in Canada. Recent meetings have been attended by representatives from the Harper government, as well as prominent political and business people from Canada, the US and Mexico, and of course, high-ranking military personnel.

Canadians should be concerned. If the US wishes to attain its stated objective of being the greatest undisputed power in the world, they will need Canadian energy resources, particularly oil and water.

Leo Kurtenbach,
Box 268, Cudworth, Sask., S0K 1B0
Phone: 306-256-3638.