| Dear Paul Martin, Dauphin of Canada:
I hope you are enjoying your summer off, daydreaming about screwing Chrétien loyalists. Maybe you should try lying under a large tree on a hot summer day and coming up with ideas on how Canada can avoid becoming a globalization stooge instead.
I realize we are supposed to treat the delicate U.S. ego with kid gloves. It’s time, however, for you to find a spine, step out from behind the skirt of the United States of America and speak the truth about what is wrong with globalization U.S.-style.
Don’t be afraid. When I’m done, you will understand why you must face the wrath of the U.S. over its economic policies and how it will make you stronger. You have a responsibility to fight for the Canadians suffering the effects of globalization, and Canada has a responsibility to fight for the world’s developing countries. We know the pain of past and current globalization, and, after working our way up the economic league table to Number 12, we have enough clout to influence the direction of globalization. If you don’t do it, us farming folks might as well pack our bags and head for the suburbs.
As Mr. Canada Steamship Lines, you’re thinking globalization is working out fine. Well, the conflict of interest commissioner says it’s time to be Mr. Prime Minister. That means thinking about the Canadians who are paying the price for the biggest corporate profit-taking since the Brits gave western Canada to the Company of Adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay. As a colony, Canada learned first-hand the pain of the last great globalization spree. Billions of dollars of natural resources left Canada before Confederation. At least we got a stable government and banking system in return.
The U.S. version of globalization only provides the occasional subsidized weapons deal, lectures on birth control and lessons on free-trade hypocrisy. In return, developing countries are forced to open their borders to European and U.S. goods, privatize their national industries, open their financial markets to the pirates of Wall Street and watch the U.S. government jack up the tariffs on any imports that might compete with fragile U.S. businesses.
Today, many Canadians outside of your industrialist and financier circles are suffering again from globalization. Softwood lumber, wheat and potato tariffs, prescription drugs – the assault on Canadian sovereignty grows every month. Still think Canada’s a participant and not a victim of free trade? Even that great defender of free trade, The Economist magazine, is laughing at us.
"NAFTA amounted to a four per cent expansion of the American economy, to include a country that accepted virtually every demand placed upon it in the negotiations and which made virtually all the concessions," it reports, referring to Canada.
At least you didn’t bend over – I mean, negotiate the damn thing. I admit to supporting the deal in the first place, but a decade later, NAFTA is hurting farmers in this country more than the dirty ’30s did.
Canadian farmers have seen their real incomes decline to levels we haven’t seen since the ’30s. Meanwhile, we are watching agri-business corporations profit from our declining incomes. In the ’80s, I sold four different lines of farm equipment and could do some bargaining. Now there are only two equipment companies – if I don’t follow their orders, I’ll be out of business faster than a blacksmith in a one-horse town.
Overnight, a few companies have taken over agriculture the world over. Seed and fertilizer prices go up, while the prices for crops goes down. Half the time, farmers are selling their crops back to the corporation that sold them the seeds.
Despite Canada’s glowing self-image as a quality world citizen, Canadian companies are not innocent in the globalization shell game. Trained well by our imperial masters, Canadian companies are moving abroad to exploit natural resources. We don’t manufacture much, but we can suck the life out of a foreign land as well as any U.S or European corporation.
I’ve seen the sharp end of the globalization stick. I know what those who are being exploited think of the companies and corporations that profit from pushing around governments and citizens. I don’t want any part of it.
Don’t think Canada has the clout to walk away from the free-trade cabal? Out here, we don’t see how Canada has a choice. It will be tough. The rich country club will consider us traitors. Like Diefenbaker, you might even be the target of U.S.-directed anti-Martin publicity. However, times have changed. The U.S. depends on us for fresh water, electricity, lumber, natural gas, oil, comedians, Vegas divas and marijuana. It’s time to point the stick in the other direction and lead instead of follow.
You’re either with us or against us on this one,
Buzz Angus
Online resources
· www.mindfully.org/WTO/2003/Economics-Of-EmpireMay03.htm – a not to be missed Harper’s Magazine article by William Finnegan, "The Economics of Empire, Notes on the Washington Consensus."
· www.aer.ph – An excellent sustainable development site from the Phillipines.
· www.brettonwoodsproject.org – Critical analysis of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
· www.robarts.yorku.ca/pdf/doha_qualman.pdf – The National Farmers Union (Canada) on globalization.
· www.networkideas.org – A southern (hemisphere)-based economic think tank.
· www.fpa.org – a pro-U.S. slant, but a thoughtful look at U.S foreign policy. |
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