Prorogation and the North American Union

[Oscar]

Sent for publishing December 16, 2008

Prorogation and the North American Union

To the Editor,

The Liberal, NDP and Bloc coalition was a necessary temporary political alliance, among other reasons, to stop the political maneuver by the Harper Conservatives in their subtle efforts to facilitate a North America Union [NAU]. The Coalition was not successful in carrying a non- confidence vote to the House, partly due to the fact that Liberal insiders could not make up their minds about which side of the fence -- left or right of the political centre -- on which they could agree.

On the advice of Prime-Minister Harper, Canada's Governor-General, Michaelle Jean, prorogued Parliament on December 4th. Four days later, a group of influential foreign affairs experts met in a conference in Ottawa.

Surprised?

These were people who have a deep interest in Canada/ US. relations. Issues discussed included defence, border security, the environment, Arctic development and regulation. Environment Minister Jim Prentice agreed that Canada should find common ground with the US. But also suggested that Ottawa appoint an eminent group to work with a representative group of Americans on "deepening North American economic integration."

This Ottawa meeting would certainly have the blessing of our Prime-Minister Harper, who, for many years, has been an admirer of the American republican political structure. Have you ever heard our Prime-Minister Harper criticize President Bush's illegal war against Iraq? Or, for that matter, any other decisions made by the Bush administration, including the torture of the prisoners of war? Recently-- this month-- ABC news reporter Jonathan Karl interviewed US. Vice-President Dick Cheney about the controversial Guantanamo prison. Mr. Cheney admitted that he gave official sanctioning of torture

All this egregious lamenting by Harper's psuedo-Conservatives that the coalition was not democratic and would destroy Canada was not very convincing. After all is said and done, it is a fact that slightly fewer that 40 per cent of Canadian voters chose the Harper Conservatives. The number of voters who chose not to have a Conservative government was slightly over 60 per cent. Needless to say, 62 per cent is simply a more convincing democratic majority than 38 per cent.

Your readers may recall that during the NAFTA negotiations, Mexican negotiators laughed at the US when Mexico was asked to proportionally share their energy resources with the US. However, our Canadian negotiators succumbed to that American request. And they did so without even considering making provision to secure sufficient energy resources for all present and future Canadians.

It can really get cold in many parts of this paradise -- Canada.

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