What’s the Big Idea?
January 2005
As Canadians settle into a new minority government, we should be concerned about a constellation of forces coming together to challenge Canadian sovereignty and values in an unprecedented way.
Not since 1984, when newly elected Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced to an elite business audience in New York City that Canada was “open for business,” have we seen the groundwork being laid for such major structural changes in Canada’s relations with the United States.
The same economic and political elite that advanced the Canada-U.S. free trade agenda 20 years ago is now pushing an even more dangerous agenda. The C.D. Howe Institute calls it a “Big Idea.” The Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) calls it the “North American Security and Prosperity Initiative.”
The new deal envisaged by these powerful right-wing think tanks and lobby groups, and supported by various newspaper editorial boards and members of the Liberal and Conservative parties, including Mulroney, would see a greater integration of the Canadian Armed Forces into U.S. military strategies, new security measures in Canada akin to those implemented by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and an iron-clad guarantee of an increasing supply of Canadian energy resources to the United States.
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