February 15, 2006

If Stephen Harper wanted to send a signal to the US that he was willing to hand over our nation to the US empire he could not have chose a more appropriate person that Michael Wilson. Mulroney’s finance minister (who started the slashing of social programs and UI that Paul Martin continued), a dedicated free trade and NAFTA supporter, the father of the hated GST, and until now, the chair the Canadian Council for Public Private Partnerships - the Bay Street organization lobbying relentlessly for the privatization of our hospitals, bridges, roads and sewer and water systems.

But perhaps equally disturbing is Wilson’ role in the deep integration initiative of big business. The initiative was formally launched by the tri-lateral Task Force on the Future of North America. Two of the heavy hitters on the six member Canadian contingent(the TF had Canadian, US and Mexican reps) of the Task Force are John Manley and Michael Wilson. It also includes former Quebec Premier Pierre Mark Johnson. Two of the six Canadian members are energy CEOs - just to indicate to George Bush that the oil companies run Canada, too.

It is important to expose Harper’s agenda hidden within this appointment for it signals that he is even more committed to deep integration than the political party which first promoted it.

If you haven’t written a letter recently, or haven’t had one published, write a short letter highlighting Wilson’s most recent roles: privatizing our public services (many of which are being bid on by US corporations) and the treasonous deep integration initiative.

The overarching message:

Stephen Harper has chosen for ambassador to the US a man who is intimately involved in a project to abandon Canadian sovereignty and nation-building and to gradually integrate Canada and its social, economic, energy and cultural policies into the American giant to the south. The message this send to the US is that Canada is no longer a independent country but a mere appendage to the US eager to give away everything that makes us a nation.

A few points to use [feel free to also remind people of his past association with Mulroney]:

• an totally unrepentant devotee of free trade regardless of the terrible results for Canada and regardless of the American’s refusal to accept NAFTA rulings

• Mr Wilson has spent the past several years as chair the Canadian Council for Public Private Partnerships which promotes the de facto privatization of our public services - often by giant US corporations

• Mr Wilson is a key figure in the promotion of the deep integration initiative. The DI plan as described by the Task Force believes (naively) that Canada will get a customs union (and freedom from US trade remedy laws). The US would get:

[pick just a few of these for your letter]

• “North American” defence - including ballistic missile defence
• harmonized immigration and refugee regimes,
• increased guarantees of access to our energy and other resources,
• access to our rivers for water exports
• social programs would gradually be changes to match those in the US as Medicare is increasingly privatized and private insurance companies are allowed to set up a parallel system, - - food and drug safety is already being harmonized with the precautionary principle being abandoned
• environmental regulations and other policies would also eventually be “harmonized.”
• Canada’s military is already being restructured into a war-fighting military and under deep integration will be further integrated into the US war machine
  
• t no time in the past 50 years have Canadians been so conscious of and so proud of what their country stands for - or so skeptical/dubious/critical/appalled at what the US is coming to stand for. According to Ekos, Canadians now demonstrate "a stronger sense of identity and greater national confidence than at any time in the past decade."

• Stephen Harper’s appointment of Wilson demonstrates that he believes he has a mandate to implement this total betrayal of Canadians’ values and wishes. He is mistaken - 124 seats and just 36% of the vote suggests otherwise.

• an Environics poll commissioned by the CBC showed that just 41% of those voting Conservative voted for Harper’s policy agenda - which gives him just a 15% mandate. 85% of Canadians want nothing to do with becoming more like America.

• we will now have an ambassador and a prime minister determined to lock us into an ever-tighter relationship to the US at a time when that country is at its weakest economically since the second world war - with record balance of payments deficits, record budget deficits and worst record of job creation in forty years. [see: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02112006.html for an excellent short article on the disastrous US economy state of the US economy.]

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