If you listen carefully to NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s rantings over the potential Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement what you hear is the most unintelligible fear-mongering ever witnessed during a Canadian election. The man’s deliberate dishonesty in his attempt to dupe voters into thinking that the negotiations are some kind of diabolical plot on the part of the government are pathetic. In his vain attempt to portray the government as secretive and working to ruin Canada’s “supply management” system that works to shore up the dairy industry he deliberately fails to recognize the potential opportunity for a huge impetus to Canadian dairy and other agricultural product exports such as beef to lucrative markets within the participant twelve–country group; exports that don’t even happen now in the case of dairy products due to our home-grown production controls via Provincial marketing boards that tie production to Canadian demand. This could mean an expansion of Canada’s agricultural industry and the creation of thousands of jobs in perpetuity; but Mulcair is careful never to mention the upside that would logically outweigh any trade-offs. I think I hear an echo as he belted out the same sanctimonious screeches when the decision was made to change our Canadian Wheat Board system; and yet, as he eats crow on that take, given how beneficial it has been to western farmers, he is game to repeat his economic adolescence simply because his socialist ideology governs his actions, never facts.
It’s interesting that all the major trade pacts in our recent times that secure Canada’s economic future in an ever more competitive global economy have been negotiated by Conservative governments including NAFTA under Mr. Mulroney and now the European Union and Trans-Pacific under Mr. Harper. I recall Jean Chretien said he’d abolish NAFA, a purely false election ploy whilst knowing full well it would have major benefits to Canada in the long run. And now the beat goes on with Mulcair’s hysteria with young Trudeau, to his credit, even though he’s “not ready” as we all know, showing some smarts for a change by not following Chretien’s example. The expertise of Canada’s TPP negotiating team under International Trade Minister, Ed Fast, is second to none employing a talented multi-disciplinary group totally in sync with the various economic sectors. As well, the Minister’s sensitivity to Canadian farming interests is at the top of Canada’s priorities as witnessed by the proposal to put in place a program to compensate farmers for any losses and protect their income levels. Unfortunately for Canadians looking in, all the hard work on this file by our diligent team of negotiators at this table of complexities that takes in forty percent of the world’s economy gets no credit from Canada’s leading left-winger and that makes him a loser in the eyes of most. I say that because if you cannot show some humility and genuine magnanimity in the face of the obvious, especially when it’s a subject critical to your country’s future, then you simply are not qualified to fill the office of Prime Minister. In my view Mulcair’s hubristic behaviour in this situation is the epitome of the perfect political perfidy!
As Mulcair’s catatonic caterwauling drones on, he hides three important facts:
First, he purposely fails to reveal that any such tentative trade deal, according to the Canadian Constitution must be vetted by Parliament and bring in all relevant input from stakeholders. Thus the normal course of business will bring the proposal to the House of Commons for debate in the next Parliament.
Second, is the fact that Canada has been a player at the TPP negotiating table for some years now thus contrary to his dishonest, tongue-in-cheek, diabolical electioneering plot claim, the timing of the current session is completely out of the control of our government so it’s simply coincidence that it’s happening during our election.
And third, he keeps yip yapping with accusations that “Mr. Harper refuses to show us the detailed text of the agreement”, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, the reprise from his echo chamber is an insult to all Canadians since he knows full well that the agreement in principle, now in draft form, is required to go through the legal departments of all the countries party to it; and, that the legal text will take some time to be written and agreed upon before it’s made public. It’s a better socialist hymn-sing for Mulcair to deliberately lie to the Canadian public than to show even a modicum of intelligence and explain to his followers what is actually happening.
In his hare-brained, shrieking diatribes over this, which only mirrors his immature image as a worn-out, career politician during Question Period in the House of Commons that Canadians have found boringly bellicose and the antithesis of the appropriate demeanour of wannabe prime ministers, Mulcair has in effect nominated himself as a candidate for the leading hysteric of the year award. And as usual Mulcair plays on his assumption that Canadians are so dumb as to not see through his spurious claims as he spews out his unprecedented, very personal vitriol towards our Prime Minister. A more vituperative leader of any Canadian political persuasion has never been witnessed in Canada and that’s why mes amis don la belle Province will turf him out as he’s no “gentleman Jack”, actually he’s more akin to “la derriere” kind. Pardon mes amis, mon French ce n’est pas bon!
Ron P. Alton