I wonder how Sir Wilfrid Laurier is resting. What would be his reaction in finding out that this Prime Minister is now pushing reciprocity as a way of getting Canadian companies into the game regarding U.S. federal, state and city contracts.
Perhaps success awaits this time. But of course, the Americans want the same access to Canadian provincial, territorial and municipal contracts. Let me take a stab at which country's businesses will win the bonanza if a level playing field is created -- you guessed it, American companies.
This is starting to look a lot like the softwood agreement: we'll have to settle for whatever we can get. Sounds like a pattern to me...
Why don't we throw a little weight around for a change. We aren't exactly beholding but forceful is not an adjective that I would associate with this demonstration of so-called Canadian resolve.
Time to play the energy card. The Americans aren't and have never been shy about playing hardball with their perceived second-tier cousins. Take it to the mat. Or is it only the Russians who happen to know how to skilfully play the geopolitical game?
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Ronald take a look at the big spikes every election regarding the Polls at Nik.
ReplyDeleteThe Lib suffer a big drop and the CPC are big gainers.
The NDP seem to have the same Lib effect of having a bigger number until the "official" poll takes place.
The pattern is consistent.
Looks like the 37 for the CPC could be well over 40 and the 33 for Lib could be 28.
Let me know if you see the Lib drop and CPC spike every election just before an election.
CanadianSense,
ReplyDeleteI will do that but it won't be for several days because I'm going bonkers this week...will get back to you in the comments. Thanks.
CanadianSense,
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in your view about your level of confidence of a Buy American deal. I assume you are rather more optimistic than yours truly.
Buy American Deal is a thorny issue for OBAMA. He is not going to expend any capital over this program.
ReplyDeleteCanadian Provinces have united behind Harper in offering an Olive Branch to open their own (provincial, municipal markets). Will the lobbyists who stand to benefit beat the protectionist lobby?
Which lobbyist group is bigger and has more clout?
Softwood Dispute was settled. It might look to have a similar outcome. Winners and losers.
CanadianSense,
ReplyDeleteInteresting perspective. Thanks for your views.
Playing the energy card would be horribley devisive on a national level. You would be playing the resource based economies in the country against the rest. I think that we can be confident that the CPC will not do this. The LPC may, but then they do not have a great record on national unity and or pitting one region of the country againat others.
ReplyDeleteThe NEP all over again?
Howie,
ReplyDeleteI'm not advocating for any type of unilateral decision made in Ottawa. There would have to be a broad based consensus to go that route. Quite obviously if the energy producing provinces were not on board, the idea would be a non-starter.
Then, it's a non-starter.
ReplyDeleteHowie,
ReplyDeleteWe have to come up with something. The cap in hand approach will do nothing but give the Americans an eventual advantage both in their market and in ours.
Personally, I fight it demeaning to see how Canadian negotiations are conducted under this government...
Rolling the "second-rate" Canadians seems to be rather easy in Washington D.C.
On the other hand, Congress is treating us like every other country in the G20.
ReplyDeleteRonald as I said earlier the compromise is already working it's way through channels. This is not sexy, like the softwood deal. We left $ 1 Billion on the table knowing the US would ignore the ruling if they lost. We talk alot demanding "fairness" from the US.
ReplyDeleteIt won't ever be fair. The US is walmart and we are a supplier. If we can find other walmarts to supply our good than we can act "tougher", otherwise we look silly threating our largest customer to shoot ourselves in the face unless they give us a better deal.
A more likely solution, according to trade sources, is for Canada to sign up to the WTO's Government Procurement Agreement, which governs market access at a sub-national level. Canada has consistently failed to sign the agreement because it has never been able to get all its provinces to sing from the same hymn sheet.
But American sources suggested a deal could be done if Mr. Day were to submit the same settlement proposal to the WTO. Thirty-seven states have already signed up to the GPA, so trade experts suggest the chances of negotiating a satisfactory outcome in Geneva are relatively high, which makes sense since Congress was aiming its legislation at China, not Canada.
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=a5bc678f-f5f7-41d4-b8e2-248af1af3b48