Quebec and Americanism/Corporatism
And ironically, says Mr. Harper, that same aspect of Quebec’s social distinctiveness is what makes it unsuitable for independence. ‘The only real independence is economic independence’ he says. ‘When you don’t have that, you don’t have anything.’
19/02/1996
Harper, again, with the truth! This is a really wonderful quote, because it can be perfectly applied to the situation between Canada and America.
America is the largest foreign owner of anything Canadian, naturally, with NAFTA that opened up our markets for their investment and control. According to Statistics Canada from 2009 to 2010 “As a result, the share of revenues under foreign control edged up from 28.8% to 28.9%” and “the share of profits under foreign control increased from 20.2% to 22.5%. This was mostly attributable to the non-financial sector”.
And, the majority of the foreign ownership, over 50% (58.4% exactly) is American owned.
Factor in that America is the biggest importer of Canadian goods, you can see that we’re inexplicitly, explicitly, and rather incestuously tied – big time – economically to the U.S. of A. Our independence and prosperity is directly linked to America’s prosperity – or lack thereof.
If someone or some entity has a controlling interest in your economy, they have control of the direction of that country.
(For added fun, regularly visit this government webpage and see what country is obtaining (former) Canadian businesses)
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It doesn’t help that Harper continues to sign away our fleeting sovereignty, with the numerous troublesome provisions of the Beyond the Border agreement with the USA. This agreement may give America the right to:
- Fly drones over our border
- Their police to cross our into our border legally
- Potentially military to cross over into our border
- Providing personal information (including banking) on any Canadian citizens on request to the U.S government
- Said information could be forwarded by America to other countries ‘allied’ without Canadian approval
- And other ‘co-operative’ ‘inter-security’ strategies that the details aren’t clear on, but hey! It makes it easier to cross into their borders now!
Harper said:
The only call from within for annexation [to the United States] will eventually come from Canada’s Left.
Report Newsmagazine “Back to the Future” 27/03/2007
Brian Mulroney, Progressive Conservative Prime Minister signed NAFTA, and Stephen Harper, Conservative, signed the Beyond the Border deal. So, yeah, it’s the left we have to worry about. It’s also the right that likes to remove regulations in general, which, generally, open up the market, generally, for American investors to – eventually – swipe away our sovereign status even more.
And boy, does Harper love America, as seen by some less underlooked quotes:
I don’t know all the facts on Iraq, but I think we should work closely with the Americans.
2002
[Y]our country [the USA], and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and across the world.
1997