Former envoy pushes for Europe-style union with States

[Kate]

Former envoy pushes for Europe-style union with States

http://link.toolbot.com/canada.com/25828

Tom Blackwell, CanWest News Service; National Post
November 29, 2006

TORONTO - Canada should push the United States for a new kind of relationship where disputes are resolved by the rule of law - not the vagaries of domestic politics, one of Canada's most successful ambassadors to Washington urged Tuesday.

Allan Gotlieb, the envoy from 1981 to 1989, advocated a European-style legal union, coupled with the creation of a North American security perimeter around the two countries.

The alternative, he told an Economic Club of Toronto luncheon, is continuing bilateral irritants that could lead to the Americans treating Canada more like Mexico.

''We are potentially seeing what could be the Mexicanization of the Canadian border, he warned.

''I think we have to go back and rethink the relationship,'' said Gotlieb. ''We have to go beyond lobbying, we have to go beyond good relations. We have to create structures like they have in Europe where you have the protection of laws ... and (we're) less dependent on the whim of senators or congressmen or the president.''

Gotlieb also said Canadians should not fool themselves into thinking that a Democratic party-dominated Congress, or a possible Democrat president down the road, will necessarily be good for this country. Democrats may be closer ideologically to Canadians, but are more likely to be protectionist and erect trade barriers that end up hurting the economy here, he noted.

He said Prime Minister Stephen Harper has fashioned a sensible strategy for dealing with the U.S., both building a good rapport with the president and ensuring diplomats continue to lobby Congress.

Gotlieb has just published a book on his own years in Washington, based on diaries he kept at the time and that he has since edited and condensed.

He acknowledged that he arrived in the American capital with the same prejudice as most of his predecessors: that the embassy need deal only with the administration, and leave the legislators alone.

But he said he was soon disabused of that notion, realizing that a surprising amount of the power in Washington resides within the Senate and House of Representatives.

The diplomat began directly lobbying senators and representatives, a practice built upon by succeeding ambassadors, while wining and dining power brokers at social events that became the talk of the town.

[jp_48504]

Allan Gotlieb, the envoy from 1981 to 1989, advocated a European-style legal union, coupled with the creation of a North American security perimeter around the two countries.

I don’t think so. We are a sovereign nation ruled by the US Constitution!

[dem4labor]

...not the vagaries of domestic politics...

Isn't that a slam on our constitution?

[loservillelabor]

Canada should push the United States for a new kind of relationship where disputes are resolved by the rule of law - not the vagaries of domestic politics, one of Canada's most successful ambassadors to Washington urged Tuesday.

That's exactly what it is Dem4. Imagine citizens of a country making decisions about how they'll live and relate to the world through the political process. I think we'll push back. Successful ambassador= elite panderer