The Council replies: Letters to the editor
Acceptable exceptions

October 20, 2009
Stuart Trew

What is columnist Jeffrey Simpson's problem with exceptions to open markets? (Ontario's showing its hypocrisy, this time on free trade, Oct. 16, Globe and Mail) Without them, there would be no Ontario wine market. There would be no Ontario auto industry. And, yes, farmers in Canada would be worse off without supply management, which tempers overproduction, guarantees decent incomes for producers, and keeps the price of milk, eggs and poultry stable for Canadian consumers.
 
Simpson would give this all up if it would encourage the European Union to drop tariffs and quotas on Canadian beef imports - the result of health concerns around the use of growth hormones, not kneejerk protectionism.
 
Actually, Simpson's column, which attacks Ontario's local content rules for new clean energy projects, displays an all too common kneejerk neoliberalism - a blind faith that governments should not do anything to regulate the economy, even the exceptions to free trade protect jobs, homegrown industry or consumers.
 
As a strong voice for more government intervention to protect the environment, he should know better.
 
Stuart Trew is the Trade Campaigner for The Council of Canadians