POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY DOUGLAS BLAND IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
Douglas Bland serves up a bland piece of propaganda.
Harper's efforts in South America have nothing to do with empty geopolitical clichés like no longer a "North Atlantic nation."
Harper is simply slavishly following the lead on U.S. foreign policy, a policy aimed at things other than the benefits of free trade.
The nations with which Harper has signed agreements are virtually insignificant to Canada's economy, as is even more the case for the U.S.
However, from the U.S. geopolitical point of view, they are significant. This is a new American approach to the power politics of imperialism.
The U.S. has signed these silly agreements with economically insignificant places simply to keep them in line, to have something valuable to them with which to threaten them.
The smaller nation, as any economist will tell you, always gains the most from a free trade. Having such a prize over the heads of these countries is a powerful tool to command compliance with matters having nothing to do with trade.
I wouldn't write this had Harper signed a free trade agreement with an important country like Brazil, but he has not. He's given us jokes like Panama because that is what Washington wants.
There is no other rational explanation for this behavior.
