Council of Canadians trade campaigner Stuart Trew
Macleans columnist Paul Wells writes, “There sure is a steady drumbeat of Canadian opposition to the so-called CETA deal between Canada and Europe. The Council of Canadians has got dozens of municipal councils across Canada to pass resolutions asking to be excluded from the terms of CETA.” His column then links to our municipal resolution action alert and newly-posted map of where resolutions have been passed, http://canadians.org/action/2011/CETA-resolution.html.
Wells adds, “Here’s a story about one such effort in Moose Jaw (by a Council of Canadians chapter), http://www.mjtimes.sk.ca/Local/News/2011-12-13/article-2833412/Concerned-about-city-autonomy/1.”
And he notes, “The NDP is pushing hard on the generic-pharma message. Letter-writing campaigns are brandishing all sorts of scary notions.”
“Meanwhile, the only sustained pro-CETA campaign comes from the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and a bunch of pharma organizations. I find their effort too clever by half: under the rubric ‘Protect Health Care’, it attempts to turn the trade dispute into a fight over the quality of Canadian health care.”
“As CETA gets closer and closer to reality, will all those town councils be able to push back? It’s hard to believe they could, but so far CETA’s opponents seem more organized and vocal than its supporters.”
To read Wells’ column on the state of CETA negotiations and key sticking points, go to http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/12/15/toward-canada-europe-trade-incoming-flack/.
For more on our campaign against CETA, please see http://canadians.org/ceta.
