Tomorrow should be a good day for Stephen Harper. He may not get much out of it other than a fine constitutional! But at least he'll be heading home fit.
This Prime Minister can walk the halls of Congress all he wants but he won't be making any headway on Buy American in either the House of Representatives or the Senate. Even the President took a convenient shot at our provincial governments and their alleged propensity toward inter-provincial trade protectionism.
In short, our PM couldn't get a trade ambulance in Washington D.C. even if the Canadian Council of Chief Executives placed the phone call...
We won't get anywhere -- or be taken seriously until we are ready to play the energy card, something Stephen Harper has no intention of doing.
It may be show and tell but the back end of the bargain is bound to be extraordinarily brief.
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Ronald, this plays out well for the opposition to do some posturing, but I think that we all know that even if we had God himself heading out government, the chances of getting the US Congress and Administration to give Canada a break on the "Buy American" clauses would still be between zero and nil.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right about the "energy card". I would think that the only party leaders right now who would play that right now would be Ms. May, Mr. Layton and M. Ducceppe
Harper won't make the same mistake the opposition repeat.
ReplyDeleteCanada does NOT dictate or demand anything. They politely ask for improvements and hope the best friend does not allow more barriers.
Leverage. We don't have it. We rely on the US and the lumber dispute, beef, autos are examples.
If we have China, India, Europe on board in the next 5-10 years we will still DEPEND on the US for over 50% of our export.