The Globe and Mail‘s Campbell Clark writes today about the impact of the US midterm elections, and the rise of the Tea Party, on Canada in relation to the tar sands, free trade, deep integration, and climate change.
TAR SANDS – “For Alberta’s oil sands, the midterms are a victory. Democratic environmentalist opponents will be replaced by oil-friendly Republicans. …David Wilkins, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada under George W. Bush…notes that the change in Congress will be good for Canada’s oil industry, as the Republican leadership is unlikely to impose special environmental restrictions. …That means Mr. Doer has an easier job selling oil, for now.”
FREE TRADE – “It used to be that a Republican wave in the House of Representatives, like the one that came Tuesday, meant a rise in free-trading sentiment in the United States. But the class of 2010 is spearheaded by a Tea Party movement that won election on a wave of anger, mainly over the loss of U.S. jobs. Many Tea Party candidates promised incentives to keep jobs from going overseas, and a poll of the movement’s supporters found 69 per cent are against free-trade agreements such as NAFTA. This midterm election squeezed out some pro-trade middle ground of moderate Democrats and Republicans. Canada can expect to beat back flare-ups of protectionism… U.S. President Barack Obama, whose administration mitigated damage to Canada from Congress’s Buy American provisions, will now have less leeway. …Colin Robertson, a fellow with the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute…expects to see cross-border trade disputes over issues such as lumber and agriculture, fuelled perhaps by industries that will soon lose stimulus-bill subsidies and seek trade protection instead.”
DEEP INTEGRATION – “For decades, the Canadian strategy to counter U.S. protectionism and post-9/11 border blockages was to pull Americans closer with new deals to increase co-operation on trade or at the border. But the new Tea Party politicians include a strain of isolationists wary of integration. New Kentucky Senator Rand Paul once expressed the fear that U.S. sovereignty will be sapped by a shadowy plan to create a common currency with Canada and Mexico. The Republicans called for tougher border controls, and though they’re primarily aimed at Mexican illegal immigration, there was also a revival of complaints that Canada’s border allows terrorists in.”
CLIMATE CHANGE – “Democrats’ efforts to pass a bill to cap and trade greenhouse-gas emissions are dead. Now the Obama administration will try to craft climate-change policy through regulations to be imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, over Republican objections in the House.”
The full article is at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/with-new-congress-canada-can-expect-trade-border-flare-ups/article1784972/.
