It's an unfortunate twist of history that started on September 11th 2001, that brings us to this day.
America has always been our greatest ally, our friends, and in some cases, part of our family. But today this is less and less the case.
I am not a fan of George W. Bush. Sure, I am right-wing as all hell. But Bush has been a president of incompetence, security expediency at the expense of human rights and due process, and put the US government finances into such disarray, that a recession is bound to be disastrous to the US treasury. It's an elephant in the room that nobody in the US acknowledges exists, except for a few unheard warnings from people like Alan Greenspan and a senator or two.
What Canadian conservatives need to learn to understand, is that America doesn't like you, either. You're an outsider. You represent another vector of potential threat to America, economically and otherwise.
I am a big supporter of NAFTA, and free trade in general. But both American Democrats and Republicans are increasingly eyeing a withdrawal from the agreement.
Despite my disdain for Bush, his administration has represented one of the last remaining political beachheads for free trade and fair immigration in the US. It's fight which is slowly being lost.
Many Americans are now eminently aware that the Canadian economy is outperforming the American economy. And they're increasingly coming to the conclusion that we're getting rich off their backs. It's a false perception, but with increasingly isolationist leanings in the US, it's a perception that both Democrat and Republican politicians are moving in to capitalize on.
Americans are now only our friends in name only. They don't care about us. If you tell an American that they depend on Canada for electricity, oil, and natural gas, they'll tell you they need to reduce their dependency on us, then.
Even the Harper government realizes this new reality. It's why the Harper government has failed to shore up closer ties with the US; US interests are increasingly becoming divergent than our own: the US does not want free trade, they want trade which favors them.
These are very sad times for me, as someone who has spent a great deal of my life living in the United States, and always being the lone pro-American in the room. But it's time to face reality: America may not be evil, they may have good intentions, but they just don't care about you. Especially not anymore.
Some Republican congressmen even want to build a wall along the 49th parallel, similar to one proposed along the southern Mexican border. A far cry from the friendship building of the Ronald Reagan era.
So when Canadian conservatives go out of their way to support American republicans, remember this. Remember that they'll take your support, thank you for it, and then slap an import tariff in your face.
A bit of personal experience with the new America: when I was hired at my current job, which is an American company, I had to travel to the United States for my orientation. The US immigration agent at the border questioned me as such:
Agent: Citizenship?
Me: Canadian.
Agent: Where are you going today?
Me: North Carolina.
Agent: Why?
Me: I have just been hired by XXXXX and I am going for a two day orientation.
(I produce a letter from my employer, along with relevant documentation)
Agent: Where do you physically work?
Me: In Toronto.
Agent: So this company has offices in Toronto?
Me: Yes.
Agent: I don't understand why the orientation can't be done in Toronto, then.
Me: Well, that's just how the company does it.
Agent: What exactly will this orientation consist of?
Me: Understanding company policies, such an insider trading rules, etc.
Agent: It just doesn't make any sense to me that you should have to travel to the United States for this. If this company wants to do business in Canada, then it should do business in Canada.
(Angrily hands documentation back to me)
Agent: Alright.
(Gestures for me to go, clearly agitated)
This was a pretty unnerving experience. I had a similar one recently on a business trip to the United Sates. When I used to live in the US and travel back and forth, back before 9/11, I never had experiences like this.
It's certainly not isolated to me. I have heard stories of people who commute to the US on a daily basis from places like Windsor, now regularly being hassled by border agents in similar aggressive and rude ways.
It underscores the importance of what is happening in the US, and the perception of their allies, as nothing more than friends of convenience.
For Canada's own economic security, we need to strongly focus on broadening our economic horizons with other countries. And soon.
I don't say this out of spite. I say it out of practicality. I hope that one day we return to a time where the US and Canada will once again be moving closer together, not apart. But as the saying goes: we need to be looking out for number one.
after this ridiculous anti-american diatribe i have no respect for you. you sound like you should be in the NDP.
Michael, I don't think that's really fair. Mike has always struck me as a bit of a Canadian nationalist. It's kind of a ridiculous dichotomy you set up: right-wing = pro-US, left-wing = anti-US.
Unfortunately the world is not that simple, my friend. Mike is viewing the world through a Canada first lens, and as someone who principally votes Liberal in elections, I must say that it actually improves his credibility as a Canadian conservative to see him put Canada first, and I could vote for someone like Mike, even as a Conservative.
I still am pro-American. I am not America-bashing in this post. But I am not going to cling to some belief that reality is anything other than it is.
America is erring back towards protectionism, on both the left and the right. I'm not going to defend that. I'm going to call it for what it is. It behooves Canadians who value our trade partnership with the US to do the same.
Americans are being misinformed by politicians who find it easy to blame Canada and Mexico for it's economic troubles. But unfortunately, there is little Canadians can do to counter this.
Had a similar experience two weeks ago. A customs agent wanted to know why I was going to the U.S. I told him I was doing sales presentations on behalf of our U.S. offices. He wanted to know if we were charging for these presentations. I said no, they were free for the clients. He asked how we made money then. I said clients hopefully would send us work because they were impressed with my presentations. And on and on like that.
It's unnerving, and shatters any illusions that the U.S. is not a foreign country.
Mike has a critical point; Canada needs to look at the rest of the world as well as the US. This is not anti-American, it is pro-Canadian.
The Americans Have not been having a great decade so far. They have been blessed with an indifferent President and a positively moronic Congress. Watching the dollar fall has been tough, watching elements of their economy get hammered has not been fun; I have no doubt that the Americans will pull themselves out of the current psychological slump but until they do I suspect they are going to be more than a little prickly about foreigners.
Which Canadians will just have to put up with. But, at the same time, we have to be looking at the opportunities which economies such as India's and China's offer. While there are parts of the Canadian economy which are stuck being very tightly linked to the US economy (think cars) there are other sectors which can look at the world rather than our friend to the South. And they should.
I worked for 15 years in the States (actaully inthe country about 80% of the time)and have had similar experiences at times but most of the time I was just asked a couple of questions and let go. The Agents at the border have a job to do and the way they get people to slip up is to ask very sturn questions and gauge the reaction of the respondent. I think the questions you were asked had more to do with finding out if you were breaking US immigration laws than protectionist bullying on the part of the officer.
I don't think he's America bashing, I read a number of American Discussion forums and sadly what the average American knows about Canada would fill the head of a pin. The American left are becoming more and more "It's all about me" let the world rot, it's safe to assume they also want us to rot on the vine for their prosperity.
My husband had day and half business meeting in the US recently, and when he re-entered Canada he was grilled by the Canadian Custom's Agent because he had nothing to declare. The Agent was rather angry that he didn't buy something whilst in the US. His only luggage was a carry on that they searched three times, traveling across the boarder is getting insane and both the Canadian Agents and the American Agents seem to get more power hungry as time elapses.
Michael, you sound more like an NDP candidate than Brock. Why the hell would you lose respect for somebody because you don't agree with them on a point? Grow up. Partisan quibbling is for those unable to think for themselves.