Commentary

Continentalism and Canadian Sovereignty

During the free trade debate which galvanized the country in the late 1980s, one of the main arguments against free trade with the United States was that it would weaken Canadian sovereignty. This was certainly the view presented by the Liberal Party in opposition to Brian Mulroney and his Conservatives' free trade agenda.

Of course, once elected in 1993, the Chretien Liberals not only embraced this agenda but advanced it, signing NAFTA. And today, after the Bush administration, the Chretien government is the strongest defender of the Free Trade Accord of the Americas (FTAA). Canada's seemingly blind support for the deal is becoming more and more embarrassing as countries like Brazil and Venezuela raise questions about how the agreement will make their economies even more vulnerable to U.S. domination.

The Liberals, it would seem, are long over such concerns. And yet many of the dire predictions they made in opposition have proven true - not even the strongest defender of free trade could argue that it hasn't weakened Canadian sovereignty. The vast majority of Canadian exports now flow directly into the American market. But the Americans have not been shy in denying access to their market (softwood lumber, steel, agricultural products, to name but a few) when they feel domestic industries are threatened, each time throwing a significant sector of the Canadian economy into crisis.

Nor have they been shy about threatening to deny access to their market when they feel the Canadian government is failing to toe the line. The war on terrorism is a perfect example - Canada committed troops to Afghanistan, the first time Canadian forces had fought under a foreign flag since the First World War - in part due to the not-so-subtle threats of the Bush administration that failure to do so would result in punitive trade measures. The same pressures will prevail to commit Canadian troops to a probable U.S. attack against Iraq.

Indeed, there is very little subtlety involved in American cowboy diplomacy these days. Witness recent American speeches, including those given at the NATO summit in Prague this past week, which castigated allies for failing to increase military spending or targeted Canada as a dinosaur. Chretien's haste to assure the Americans that more dollars for the military are forthcoming in the next federal budget would have been comical if it weren't such a chilling indictment of American control over our military policy.

Pressure on Canadian sovereignty is not coming solely from the Americans. Canada has its very own version of the fifth column, mainly taking the form of those who support "continentalism".

During the height of the free trade debate, predictions about dollarization (adopting the U.S. dollar) were dismissed as ridiculous paranoia on the part of irrational anti-free traders. Today, members of the government and heads of state agencies discuss the inevitability of such a move.

Similarly, predictions that free trade would lead to the privatization of public services were dismissed. Today, several provincial governments allow for-profit health clinics to operate while the American health care industry quietly bides its time waiting for the Canadian health services market to open.

The country's official opposition, the Canadian Alliance, consistently supports continentalism despite all the evidence that Canadians reject the notion. Recently, the Alliance backed a move to destroy the Canadian Wheat Board, which would ensure the control of western Canadian grain by American multinationals. The Alliance, which pretends to stand for grassroots democracy, went so far as to say that even a majority vote in favour of keeping the Wheat Board by western Canadian farmers should be ignored and that its monopoly should be broken by Parliament.

The Alliance has argued strongly in favour of continental security and boarder policies as well, and has criticized the Chretien government for not assisting enough with the war on terrorism. However, the Canadian Alliance merely represents the most vocal anti-national force within parliament. The ruling Liberals, while waving the flag on occasion, are actually implementing the Alliance agenda, while the remaining parties in parliament have little or nothing to say on the subject of Canada's rapidly diminishing sovereignty.