NAFTA Revisited

[ALICIA]

I kind of hope USA has a case of Mad Cow so that us Canadians can watch and lead how this great god loving country handles the mess.

[almoy]

The US would never admit to having a case of BSE.

[ivbinconned]

Yes Cowman I know who made the statment. The point is that she felt comfortable saying it and her boss let it slide untill the preasure got to much and then she dissapeared.
Yes Chretien has followed the rules of survival that all ruling parties in this country have to follow. That is, on any important issue the question is, what does Quebec want, and what does Ontario want.
This is just the way the math works. And we should quite complaining, or get surious about fixing it.

[cowman]

Well I guess we'll have to stop complaining then! Don't see anything happening in the future to fix it!
Way back in the eighties there was this party the WCC that started out looking pretty good but they were a little too wild for your average voter I guess. They had some good ideas but then they got sidetracked and came out with some outrageous things. In the meantime Lougheed got out the checkbook and bought off the ones who were wavering. Result...end of the only separtist party that ever elected anyone. It was a big deal at the time. The WCC packed the halls in the rural area I live in.
Then we got the Reform party! Which was going to get us a better deal right? They morphed into the Alliance and are now in the process of morphing back into the Conservatives or liberal lights if you will! Do you think they will stand up for us? I doubt it.
The only time you really hear any of our provincial premiers bashing Ottawa is when they need to get reelected or the books don't look too good because of their mismangement. Everybody thinks Ralph Klein is some kind of neo-conservative when in fact he is nothing but a spendthrift and wastrel! It's pretty easy to look good when you own the goldmine!

[pandiana]

Wasn't it David Orchard that agreed to throw his support behind McKay provided he agree to review NAFTA.
I guess I am more and more convinced that we have to renew this agreement because at this point I have to be reminded what it was that we are supposed to benefit from this agreement.
We are forced to sell our natural resources (non-renewable) at market prices (including water...again see Wendy Holm) and US adds value and resells them back to us. Even US agricultural products must be given equal opportunity to ours. When is the last time you bought a Canadian apple. Climate dictates that American product reaches our shelves much sooner that ours and we have no choice but to accept them. Our cold, short season climate also influences input costs which are lower in warmer climates.
What about price increases? Produce is the grocery stores has increased at least 30% over past few years and even vegetables that grow quite well in our shorter season are being displaced by imported product. Subsidized imported products make it difficult for innovative approaches to extend our growing seasons because of initial input cost (I am thinking of recapturing heat from gas plants to warm green houses).

[cowman]

I think David Orchard was more in favor of scrapping the free trade deal than reviewing it! That whole deal with him is sort of bizarre...it's like he got lost on the way to the liberal convention and stumbled in on the PCs by mistake!
Personally speaking I get pretty sick of the trash they sell at Safeway! I always try to buy local stuff when possible. Unfortunately Safeway seems to like stuff from California and Mexico and you can hardly find an Alberta vegetable on the shelf!
Go to the farmers markets...it may or may not cost a bit more, but at least it tastes good!
One thing that bugs me a bit about farmers markets is that the Hutterites are busy cornering the industry! Now I don't have anything against Hutterites but I just like to buy from the little guy trying to make a go of market gardening. It seems to me the Hutterites have an unfair advantage over the private market gardener. Free labor and less taxes.