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August 8, 2008 Ambassador Michael Wilson’s speech to the 2008 North American Forum has made its way to the embassy’s website. The elite, closed-doors gig took place this year in Washington, D.C. from June 15 to 17. According to organizers at the World Affairs Council, who have now held four forums since the inaugural meeting in October 2005: “The North American Forum is a community of Canadian, Mexican, and American thought leaders, whose purpose is to advance a shared vision of North America and to contribute to improved relations among the three neighbors. They come together annually to explore interactions among the mutually reinforcing goals of security, prosperity, and enhanced quality of life.” U.S. officials were unusually candid about their participation in the 2008 forum. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte posted their own speeches on, or very shortly after, the day they gave them. They are now posted to the World Affairs Council website. In Canada, it took over a year for the Canadian Labour Congress and others to receive Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day’s speech to the September 2006 forum in Banff, Alberta – and then it was through an access to information request. Ambassador Wilkins’ speech did make it to the embassy website, but over a month after he delivered it this June. “This is my second year attending the Forum,” he told attendees, whoever they were. (The Council of Canadians acquired an invite list to the 2006 forum but it is unclear, if fairly easy to guess, who attended in 2007 or 2008.) “I am looking forward to this morning’s discussion on ‘Enhancing Economic Integration and Competitiveness.’ This is a top priority for Canada.” We need to “minimize trade barriers between our countries,” said Wilson. We need “to continually position ourselves better — position North America better — to compete with Asia and Europe.” And we must do this “without falling into the protectionist trap.” As to the economic downfalls of globalization and integration, such as the manufacturing exodus from Canada, the United States and, increasingly, Mexico, we just need to educate our workers better on how to suck it up and move on. When life gives you lemons, as they say… It is fairly typical fare and could have been written (might have been written, actually) by the Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Council of Chief Executives, free trade pushers at the Universities of Alberta or Carleton in Ottawa, or any number of similarly unimaginative wonks echoing the same lines about Canada-U.S. relations, over and over again, in order to dupe the Canadian public into thinking there’s no alternative to economic integration! But as we now know, Canadians are not duped. Over half of us want the Harper government to do whatever it takes to renegotiate the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Our ambassador should chew on that before he makes his travel arrangements for the next forum, which will return to Canada.
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