Thread: What gifts will Harper bring Bush this time?

http://www.thestar.com

What gifts will Harper bring Bush this time?
Jul. 6, 2006. 01:00 AM
MAUDE BARLOW


On President George Bush's 60th birthday, he will be visited by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Having watched our government go to great lengths to please Bush, Canadians can't help but wonder what treats Harper has planned for the president this time.

If the Liberal government maintained a marginal distance from the U.S. by signing onto the Kyoto Protocol, refusing to participate in the Iraq war etc., Harper made it a point early on to show the Bush administration a much friendlier Canada. In his throne speech, Harper said he considered the U.S. to be "Canada's best friend." Then he went on to prove his friendship.

The Harper government promptly scrapped Kyoto and pledged its support to the war on terror by extending Canada's mission in Afghanistan. It has become clear today that this is not a peacekeeping mission; it is a full-fledged combat operation.

But the Conservative government has no problem with this. In fact, it has gone as far as promoting Canada's belligerent role in the "war on terror" through an $18,000 ad campaign in U.S. subway stations depicting Canadian soldiers in combat in Afghanistan — this despite the fact that 57 per cent of Canadians want the military involved in "traditional peacekeeping," according to a 2005 Ekos Research poll.

On trade, Harper has allowed the U.S. to disregard the NAFTA ruling on softwood lumber in Canada's favour to work out a deal that better suits the U.S. While Paul Martin paid lip service to defending Canadian interests in the lumber dispute, Harper had no qualms about settling with the U.S. outside the NAFTA dispute-settlement mechanism.

The softwood ordeal made it clear to Canadians — proponents and opponents of NAFTA alike — that the trade agreement was not working for Canada. Yet Harper has forged ahead with the Security and Prosperity Partnership, giving business and security interests priority over social and environmental concerns.

For the Bush administration, working to spread its neo-con agenda throughout the continent, the Security and Prosperity Partnership is the icing on the cake. It was the Liberal government which first signed onto the deal to harmonize Canadian policies with those of the U.S. in order to facilitate trade. But Harper has eagerly taken the neo-conservative plan one step further. Along with his American and Mexican counterparts, he launched the North American Competitiveness Council to formalize the powers of the business elite.

This latest development clearly puts business leaders in the driver's seat and gives them the green light to press forward for a North American model for business security and prosperity. While Mexico and Canada have 10 representatives at the NACC each, the U.S. has 15.

In Harper, Bush has a best friend willing to promote a Republican-style agenda in Canada and eager to blindly support U.S. foreign policy objectives abroad. What more could the Bush administration ask for?

There actually is more. The U.S. would like even greater access to our energy despite evidence that resources are depleting. American corporations would like access to our vast water resources and U.S. health management organizations are licking their chops in the hope that a health-care privatization scheme will finally give them access to the Canadian market. The Bush gift registry goes on.

With very little information about the agenda of Harper's meeting with Bush, we can only hope that our Prime Minister will be feeling slightly less generous this time.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maude Barlow is chairperson of the Council of Canadians and author of Too Close for Comfort: Canada's Future within Fortress North America.

Canada, welcome to our world under the Bush regime.

I sincerely hope the Canadian people are aware the American people are against this every bit as much as they are

I caught this on the news. Pretty funny though. A canadian reporter asked Bush what he thought of the birthday present (a belt I think he said it was). Bush said he didn't know because he hadn't received it yet.