4 - Wednesday, November 4, 1987 - North Shore News Boh Hunter ®@ strictly personal @ I’VE BEEN out of the country for five weeks. The only story about Canada that made it to the other side of the world was the free-trade deal. It is the envy of everyone I’vé talked to outside of Canada, believe me. New Zealanders and Australians would give their left arms for such a deal. The Japa- nese and other Southeast Asian nations would wet themselves to have found a way to march in through the front door of For- ‘] tress America instead of having ‘| to tunnel under the wall, fearful of the hole being plugged any time. ; The fact that’ Canada has managed, ‘miraculously, to strike such a bargain is considered, by economists writing in virtually all the major international publica- tions, as an event of global magnitude which, with a bit of luck, might set a shining example in the gathering fiscal dark. “Some experts Z0 SO far as to say that the one hope at the moment of avoiding a global recession is the positive move Canada and America have made against ‘protectionism. ”’ Some experts ‘go ‘so far as‘to say that the one hope ’at.the mo- -ment. of avoiding a ‘global. reces- sion is the positive move. Canada and America -have: made against protectionism. And not just posi- “tive, “but a tide-bucking feat of tremendous political will —; the kind of thing | that leadership i is all about. 2.2 "Canadians are widely admired at the momint — outside of North America — as shrewd op- | erators who have set the stage for ‘Ta successful economic invasion of the great American marketplace. , ‘We are seen to have taken ad- vantage of our position as! a vir- | tual protectorate of. the U, S.A., ‘to stake out guaranteed entry to what is still the: most awesome fish tank of consumerism in the world, and still, despite its crippl- ing deficit and wobbling | stock market, the engine of the world’s economy, The only other ‘country ‘that enjoys this kind of access is Israel, and it is that connection, as much as anything, that keeps the beseiged Israeli theocracy alive in a hostile Arabian en- vironment. : In terms of the world market, Canada as an exporter of. raw materials faces serious long-term pressure from poor Third World countries, and as an exporter of ‘leading-edge technology, equally ‘serious pressure from the rich Third World. With Japan and Europe, led by West Germany, emerging as formidable trading blocs (Japan is a de facto bloc), Canada — lazy, luxuriously decadent Canada — faces the prospect of a serious decline in the standard of living. As our traditional markets come under worsening pressure and we frozen out of the big market- places, because they are all turn- ing inward on themselves, any guaranteed mass markets are go- ing to be damn nice to have, especially, of all things, the American marketplace. Forget penetrating Japan. Anyone who has been there } knows perfectly well that the in- tensity of the competition to peddle products within Japan is so overwhelming that only a handful of multinationals can butt in at all. Ditto for most of Southeast Asia. As for the Europeans, well, they trang out at the same ski resorts, you know. And Britain long ago abandoned the Com- | monwealth countries to their own disparate economic fates. By taking the decisive action of locking-in with mounted a vehicle of probably unlimited wealth-making capaci- ty. Otherwise, it looks very much as though we are going to stagnate —- become a sunset in- dustrial upper-middle power moving down to lower-middle power. Structural stagnation, believe it, has been- setting in, especially in Canada’s west, and our leadership, has been less that wholly composed of geniuses. ° At, a stroke, though, Canada “ has pulled ‘off a real coup and my ‘real concern about my kids and grandkid having a chance to en- joy a standard of living at least as high as mine, has been eased considerably. ; It is amazing, therefore, to come back into Canada and find: a raging wind of ultranationalist paranoia and xenophobia blow- ing, along with the featherbed- ders yelping. I said in this corner, back on Sept. 2: ‘‘The slim hope of some kind of terrific deal coming out of all this is pure and simple my belief that Pat Carney was born to make something epochal hap- pen. And her great moment is just coming.’ I notice, catching up on my reading of the indigenous media, that the pundits got faint-hearted near the end of the trade negotia- tions. Both Marjorie Nichols and Foth pronounced the talks dead in the water. They were, um, wrong. Pat Carney was right on, all the way. It is possible that she might have changed the world. Even saved it. No kidding. Loud clapping from this cor- ner, Pat! 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