Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Perimeter Idiocy

So the big story in Canada has been all these proposals for an integrated North America. The integration would primarily affect such things as security and trade primarily. There are several reasons why wholesale integration is a terrible idea. The primary problem though is that this whole thing is predicated on the notion that Canada, Mexico, and the United States would be equal partners. Let's not delude ourselves here. Look at trade rulings, the US just ignores NAFTA when it is in their interest to do so. The US would enter such a deal looking to be able to make all the rules and ignore the ones it didn't like. We have seen in trade, and this kind of a solution would apply it to security and immigration. The US would bully Canada and Mexico into accepting its definition of who is a good guy or a bad guy. Does anyone think that it could be any other way?