What Canada Should Do

For a long time I’ve been saying that we need to diversify our trade more. The ease of access we have to the large American market makes it all too easy to put all our eggs in one basket.

There are several problems with this, though.

First and foremost is that it gives the American administration too much power over Canadian foreign policy. You can already see this in many ways, not least of which is the speed with which we agreed to “harmonize” our immigration and visa policies with the US–we can’t afford to do anything which will cause the US to slow down border crossings, with 87% of our exports crossing that border.

Look for more pressure from the US, especially border related pressure, on issues like drug decriminilization ,etc.

Another major problem, though, is that if anything happens to weaken or damage the US economy, it will drag us down with it. (This is why I am so worried about the weakening US dollar, and Bush’s spending insanity).

One solution that would help with both of these problems would be to diversify our exports, so that the US didn’t have such a death-grip on our economy.

One solution that I have kind of glibly been kicking around is the notion of Canada applying for membership in the EU.

And now, reading in Salon about how Europe is succeeding in many of the ways that the US is notably failing, I am starting to think seriously about this.

Here’s a quote:

If the EU has no intention of confronting America’s military supremacy, that, Rifkin and Reid would agree, is actually Europe’s ace in the hole. Let the Americans pour endless billions in taxpayer dollars down the Pentagon’s money sink, the Europeans reason. As they see it, the key to future peace and prosperity lies elsewhere, in constructing complex webs of social interaction and economic cooperation that will undermine nationalism and fundamentalism of all stripes. While the United States foots the bill for the intractable conflict in Iraq and piles up huge budget and trade deficits, Europe has spent money on other priorities.

I wonder what it would take for some of the information from this article to make it into a Fox News broadcast.