statism watch

Good thing these crises keep rolling in, or there’d be little chance for such opportunities. Why do those close to the levers of power appreciate crises so much? A chance to stampede the herd? Check your head, Iggy – sovereignty isn’t ‘protectionism’. And NAFTA isn’t free trade. Since Martin’s out on the road selling the G20, it looks like Ignatieff is the local cheerleader for the same globalist agenda being espoused by Gordon Brown, Timothy Geithner, Volcker, Greenspan, Kissinger, and the rest of the usual suspects around the CFR and IMF. Perhaps in four years we can start afresh with a new batch of leaders a little further removed from the establishment that’s hell-bent on shoving these ideas down our throats. But likely not. At least he restrained himself from peppering the article with the word ‘governance’.

Flashback: Take note Naomi Klein: Democrats consider crises as opportunities, too | Globalists Exploit Financial Meltdown In Move Towards One World Currency | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | Wolfowitz: U.S. Future Hinges on Another ‘Crisis’ | McCain adviser says terrorist attack would boost campaign | Rumsfeld to Pentagon Media Analysts: America Needs another Attack | New Documents Reveal North American Union PR Campaign

Michael Ignatieff, The National Post
February 19, 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Canada offers us an opportunity for partnership that we should seize with both hands.

We won’t get out of our economic crisis unless we work with our neighbour to make the North American economy more efficient and competitive. The crisis creates an opportunity for political leadership on both sides of the border, and a chance to break down the barriers that prevent our two economies from reaching their full potential.

A North American agenda begins with a strong defence of continental free trade. President Obama has shown leadership in condemning “Buy American” measures in Congress, and leaders in Canada need to stand up against protectionism in our own country, as well. Protectionist moves in Congress, like the Country of Origin labelling in livestock, continue to hold back our exporters. No country stands to lose more from a protectionist turn in the U.S. than Canada, and we need to say loud and clear that protectionism will lead both of our countries backwards.

Besides a renewed commitment to free trade, we need to work together to ensure that people and goods can move more freely across our borders. Over $1.5-billion in trade crosses the Canada-U.S. border every day, and there are more than 100 million individual crossings each year. [Ed. Note. Okay... sure...]

While our competitors in Europe are tearing down the borders between their economies, our border with the United States is becoming a choke-chain on both of our economies. We’ve never succeeded in creating the “smart border” we thought we would after 9/11, and in many ways our border practices are less intelligent than ever. We need to invest jointly in border infrastructure, work together to improve security at our key maritime ports and increase pre-clearance for goods away from the border. We should try to persuade the Americans to stop the introduction of the passport requirement due in June of this year. [Ed. Note: Oh, so what you really want is complete border surveillance in the name of 'free trade'. Slick.]

A secure but efficient border is crucial for the growth of many industries in Canada, none more so than our automotive sector. We need to work with the U.S. government, but also with industry leaders and autoworkers, to ensure that the rescue package being put together by the Obama administration also safeguards Canadian jobs and product mandates. At the same time, Canada and the United States should develop common emissions standards so that we come out of the current crisis with a green, energy-efficient automobile industry.

President Obama’s administration offers Canada the first opportunity in eight years to develop a complementary approach for the sustainable development of natural gas, petroleum and hydroelectric energy. We should immediately begin working toward a common cap-and-trade system, with a hard cap on emissions and defined reduction targets for industrial emissions.[Ed. Note: You mean, a carbon tax to regulate every aspect of our lives.]

Our environmental partnership should extend into the far north. Canada and the United States should work together, with other northern nations, to protect this region for the whole globe. We should applaud the President’s campaign commitment not to undertake drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We should maintain Canada’s long-held legal position that the North West Passage is an inland waterway and not an international strait, but we should not allow our disagreement with the Americans on the issue to preclude bilateral efforts to ensure good stewardship and orderly management by Canadians of passage through the waterway. We need to reinvigorate the Arctic Council so that all northern nations develop common strategies to mitigate the impact of global warming, avoid conflict over resource development and improve the lives of the region’s indigenous peoples.

Beyond North America, our two countries can work together to strengthen global institutions. This goes beyond the United Nations and the international climate change protocols. Canada has a good record in regulating our banking and financial services sector. We should work with the Americans and other G20 countries to develop new rules for international global finance to spare the world another financial crisis in the future.[Ed. Note: Read, further centralization of economic power in the hands of unelected intra-governmental mandarins.]

The Americans respect the hard work we have done in Afghanistan. Our military engagement there is drawing to a close, but while we still have troops on the ground, we should work with Richard Holbrooke, President Obama’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, to bring greater strategic coherence to the NATO mission and greater focus to our reconstruction and development efforts.

When President Obama visits us today, we have a choice. We can either complain about unsolved problems or seize the opportunity to excite him with the possibilities of partnership. Together we can make our economies stronger and the world a safer place. Let’s seize the chance his visit offers us.

Source | See Also under Sovereignty: Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Paul Martin prescribes international regulatory body for ailing fiat economies | Increasing Number of States Declaring Sovereignty | Iceland to be fast-tracked into the EU | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change | How realistic is a North American currency? | Q&A: Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks with The Post’s John Ivison | UK-Irish travellers to face passport checks | Harper plays down threat to Arctic sovereignty | New policy emphasizes U.S. interests in Northwest Passage | Obama to visit Canada, Tories to propose ‘integrated carbon market’ | Detroit granted water extraction exemption due to ‘historical precedent’ | Bush Signs New Unified Command Plan for ‘Synchronized Global Planning’ | Get close to Obama on economy and security, paper says | Irish to vote on EU treaty again as experts warn Britain could be signed up within a year | EU Police to Stream into Kosovo Despite Protests | Press for Truth confronts Paul Martin on Bilderberg and the SPP | Canada backpedals on sharing ID database with U.S. | UK closer to joining euro, EU commission president says | Congressman Warns Of Secret Plans To Create International Central Bank | You’re not doing it right: New Irish vote on EU integration ‘legal’ | Quebec First Nations declare sovereignty, opposition to provincial development plans | U.S. air-security rules cause Canadian turbulence | Rich countries, corporations launch great land grab | John Manley, committed globalist, to chair Munk Centre’s School of International Studies | IMF: G20 meeting underscores need for greater surveillance, changes in global governance | Beijing peasants bullied, beaten off of family farms by state-developer blocs | Flaherty calls for mandatory IMF surveillance | Document Outlining IMF Economic Dictatorship Uncovered/Leaked? | Harper ready to harmonize with U.S. on climate change | Harper Govt. to push North American carbon market plan with Obama | TILMA interprovincial “trade pact” represents further centralization of political power | IMF may need to “print money”, act as “world’s central bank” as crisis spreads | History: How the US Government Was Overthrown In Three Easy Steps | Harper, Sarkozy vow to work toward Canada-EU deal | Behind the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power | US Africom ‘has no hidden agenda’ | Paul Martin calls for ‘global solution’ | CD Howe Institute backs Canada-EU deal, deep integration | Towards a new world order: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA | NATO Considers Deploying Rapid-Reaction Force in States Bordering Russia | Architect of North American integration urges reboot | Canada’s made in America energy policy | Canadian ambassador to address fourth annual North American Forum in Washington | “North American Parliament” Meets At Integration Forum | New bridge slated for Windsor-Detroit corridor: sources | Student Mock Parliament to be held in Montreal Parallels Integrationist Aims of SPP | South American union is created | American Border Officers Want to Fingerprint Canadians at SPP Bridge | Business group sets and gets its agenda | Continental Business Lobby Releases List of Priorities for Government to Address at SPP Talks | North American ID card in the works through SPP | CBC-TV’s mini-series Trojan Horse is a very clever warning to Canadians about the North American Union agenda | New Documents Reveal North American Union PR Campaign | Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies | Consider a continental currency: Jarislowsky | Vicente Fox Admits Plan For Single NAFTA Currency | Military To Crackdown On North American Union Protesters | North American Union plan headed to Congress in fall | Fraser Institute: The Case for the Amero

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