Like 1988 FTA, Border Agreements Will Not Undermine Canadian Sovereignty

Voices of cultural doom wrong again

This article rightly argues that Canadian sovereignty will not be affected by the new border plans. Instead, trade and security will be enhanced.

This is the first time since the 1988 agreement that top-level dialogue has taken place between Ottawa and Washington.  Despite the allegations that the 1988 FTA would destroy Canadian culture, usher in privatization, and undermine Canadian sovereignty, none of these have come to pass.

The Canadian Governments' lack of a coherent foreign policy vision should not be confused with subservience to American policy. In fact, it is interesting to note the similarity between Ignatieff's democracy promotion agenda for Egypt and the American neoconservative plan for Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps Canada's saving grace is that the Canadian Forces have been so thoroughly gutted that Canada poses no risk to committing that a blunder of that proportion.