[mobglob-discuss] The 'deep integrationists' plan one happy continent - Murray Dobbin

[Tom Childs]

For Canada...>>>>Water, power, culture on the table<<<<

http://rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?sh_itm=50c8520a3cca1d72685ca780d2137f6a&r=1
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For our own good, give Canada away 

The 'deep integrationists' plan one happy continent, but we must teach
the little ones.  
    
by Murray Dobbin 
February 23, 2005 

As Canadians watch their daily news * the same sex marriage debate,
the continuing saga of equalization payments and the fight over
splitting the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in
two * the future of the country is being decided elsewhere by
unelected corporate power brokers. 

This particular future is called "deep integration" and is backed
by the most powerful business groups, think tanks and foundations in the
country. The most recent manifestation of this betrayal of Canada is
called the Task Force on the Future of North America. Its leaked report
shows the plan in its most refined form to date. 

The "team" backing this annexation initiative is politically
ambidextrous, which signals the élites' unanimity. Two of the heavy
hitters on the Task Force are John Manley, quite likely the next leader
of the federal Liberals, and Michael Wilson, former Tory finance
minister. It also includes former Quebec Premier Pierre Mark Johnson.
Two of the six Canadian members are energy CEOs * just to indicate to
George Bush that the oil companies run Canada, too. 

The fact that Canadians are more anti-American now that any time in the
past 50 years has had no impact on the plans of the annexationists in
our midst. It doesn't matter that huge majorities of Canadians want
nothing to do with more integration with the rogue nation to the south
of us. The democratic imperative is well and truly dead amongst the high
rollers who, having failed to meet the competitive challenge of free
trade, have adopted a new slogan: If you can't beat 'em, join em. 

Water, power, culture on the table 

The deep integration initiative was publicly launched in early 2002
with an opinion piece in The Globe and Mail by the C.D. Howe Institute's
Wendy Dobson. A former staffer in Paul Martin's finance department, she
described the thrust of the initiative this way: "Instead of waiting
to be told what's expected of us [by the Americans], Canadian
governments and industry should prepare for this possibility in a
proactive way." She discussed the "Big Idea": that in order to get
the Americans' attention we should give them everything we think they
might want and then pray they give us real, unimpeded access to their
market. 

The Task Force * co-chaired by John Manley * is trilateral and
reports not to governments but to the Council on Foreign Affairs (CFA),
one of the most influential think tanks in Washington. The CFA is one of
three co-sponsors of the Task Force along with the Canadian Council of
Chief Executives (CCCE) and the Mexican Council on Foreign Affairs. The
ubiquitous Tom d'Aquino of the CCCE (formerly the BCNI) is a vice-chair.


There isn't much new in the summary report of the Task Force's first
meeting, held last October in Toronto. But it does focus in on the most
critical features of what Canada's business leaders want. Among the most
controversial: eliminating the current NAFTA exemptions for culture and
certain sectors of agriculture. Another is expanding the egregious
energy provisions of NAFTA * which guarantee the U.S. an
ever-increasing percentage of our gas and oil production regardless of
Canadian needs * to other resources, including water. Messrs. d'Aquino
and Manley also want to offer the Americans the same deal on electricity
that they already have with natural gas * through a North American
electricity grid. 

The initiative is driven by the post-9/11 geopolitical atmosphere and
was first launched just months after the attack. The report states
plainly that "security considerations trump other issues." The
thinking behind this annexationist plan suggests that the only way
Canada will not be hurt by U.S. security concerns is to adopt them as
our own * and redefine ourselves as North Americans. 

Kids to learn continental virtue 

Indeed one of the most perverse parts of the plan would see the
education system hijacked to implant in the minds of young Canadians the
idea that they are, actually, North Americans: "Participants agreed
that progress on this front will require effort within the education
system [including] supplements to the standard curriculum." 

Talk about social engineering. Thomas Axworthy, another Task force
member, and a long time advocate of creeping annexation, is going to
"work" on this idea. A North American passport would also be part
of the effort to erase any vestige of Canadian identity and replace it
with one that would inevitably be American * not North American. 

Until recently, Bay Street's annexation initiative has been almost
exclusively a private affair * the CCCE, think tanks, business
columnists and now the Task Force. But the proponents believe that the
time is ripe to engage the three governments and make the process a
formal political project. 

In January the CCCE's d'Aquino initiated news coverage of the idea of a
trilateral summit of Bush, Martin and Mexican President Vincente Fox. D'
Aquino claimed that Bush was interested in calling a summit this year on
"the scope and extent of a major initiative to forge a new economic
and security partnership within North America." 

This is the most dangerous development in the annexation push so far.
Conventional wisdom has suggested that the U.S. was simply not
interested. If Bush is suddenly willing to talk about the idea there is
only one reason: Behind the scenes our quisling economic elite has
promised the U.S. such huge concessions on security, energy and water
that they can't afford to ignore them. 

Sound the alarm. 

Murray Dobbin is the author of Paul Martin: CEO for Canada?