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November 23, 2007 A few weeks after praising the Security and Prosperity Partnership at a meeting of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, Industry Minister Jim Prentice is now begging the architects of the continental agreement — Tom d'Aquino and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives — to help him keep the White House interested. "We need to remind ourselves — and our American friends — that we are not just selling goods and services to each other," Prentice told a CCCE meeting on November 21. "Increasingly, we are making goods and performing services together, and our markets are global. As globalization is accelerating, we will need to become even better at making things together. I raise these issues at every opportunity with my counterparts U.S. Commerce Secretary Gutierrez and Mexico's Secretary of Economy Sojo. My Cabinet colleagues do the same." I'm sure you do, Jim. Unfortunately, as was made painfully obvious by a slew of recent news stories on increased security at the U.S. border, the Bush administration has different priorities than the Canadian government would like them to. Despite the SPP's new guarantees on Canadian energy, and the wholesale acceptance of U.S.-style security, immigration and travel procedures, the White House will act unilaterally when it suits American interests. You can't beat this reality into some people's heads. Prentice actually claims that a new propaganda campaign from the CCCE will put the SPP's borders agenda — a bigger deal for Canada and Mexico than the U.S. government — back on track. "We need all of you to get involved in showing just how important it is to have borders that are both smart and secure," he said, making sure to note, "how much I appreciate the work being done by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which acts as the secretariat to the Canadian contingent of the NACC, which is led by Linda Hasenfratz." In "practical terms," said Prentice, "that means working together to explain to American decision makers the importance of managing our border in a way that does not turn it into a barrier to commerce and to our shared prosperity. We need to keep this on the Americans' political agenda." (Italics added.)
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