Re: Letter: Canada shouldn't be 'kowtowing' to America
The letter writer suggests that Chrystia Freeland would do a better job than Justin Trudeau in dealing with the U.S., and that she had done an outstanding job negotiating the disastrous North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This is like suggesting that the three Stooges would have done a better job than the Marx brothers.
Trump was temperamental and often irrational, but he said the new NAFTA had no need to change with Canada, only Mexico. Until Trudeau called him a bully behind his back, after agreeing to his face.
Trump said that Canada would pay for Trudeau's comments. Then suddenly we had to negotiate to save free trade, and we lost.
The slightly left leaning CD Howe institute says Canada will lose about $10 billion a year under the Freeland negotiated deal.
This is the same Freeland who burst into tears when negotiating with Europe, and said she would go back to her children who appreciated her.
This is the same Freeland who in the middle of NAFTA negotiations, sat on a panel at a conference called 'Taking on the tyrant’ which compared Trump to world leaders who imprisoned or murdered thousands.
She also gave a speech at a U.S. magazines awards dinner, where she called the U.S. negotiators incompetent. You can imagine how eager the U.S. was to give concessions after that.
Freeland went behind Mexico's back and tried to negotiate an auto deal based on minimum wages.
The U.S. took this deal to Mexico to show them that Canada had gone against their promise to negotiate in partnership with Mexico, so Mexico signed a deal with the U.S., without Canada.
Canada was then forced into taking a bad deal, or no deal. Neither Freeland or Trudeau would defend Keystone XL. But what we learned from this lesson, is not to antagonize a country that is 10 times our size, and doesn't need us as much as we need them.
I expect our politicians to swallow their pride and get us a great deal, instead of insulting allies and getting us a lousy deal.
Bob Wilson,
Calgary
