Harper's Skipped EU meeting
Harper for whatever reason has decided to cancel and Canada-EU summit in Helsinki while going to a NATO summit only a mere 30 minutes plane ride away in Riga, Latvia two days later. His reason is he fears having one fewer vote in a minority government, but even after the NDP agreed to pair the votes and the Liberals promised not to hold any votes, he still refused. Now I'll leave the Harper bashing on this for others, but I believe that Canada needs to do more not less to strengthen our relations with the European Union.
The European Union has more people and a larger GDP than the United States and will along with China and India be a major force to deal with in the 21st century. More importantly, Europe shares many common values with Canada be it our social safety net, support for multilateralism, democracy and freedom, socially progressive policies, and a free market with government intervention to temper its excesses. With so much in common, the EU could be a strong ally of Canada in promoting our values globally. While I don't think Canadian membership in the EU would be appropriate at the moment (as a few Liberals bloggers have suggested), I do support closer ties and working more cooperatively with the EU on issues of our common interests. Stronger relations with the EU doesn't have to mean weaker Canada-US relations, which seem to be the only relations Harper cares about. In fact as a small country who can be respected by both, we can play a role in bridging the trans-Atlantic divide. While the Bush administration may care less for Europe, I believe many Americans would respect Canada having a strong relation with EU and value our ability to bridge the divide. In addition having 87% of our trade with one country is bad policy. Any successful country will have diversified trade since if you put your eggs in one basket, when that country goes into a recession so does its main trading partner. So we should not just strengthen our cooperation on the environment, but also increase trade with Europe. I would even support establishing a free mobility pact for those under 30 so as Canadians and Europeans can experience each other's culture. On the environment, there is a strong demand for green products so greater trade with Europe could create a market for selling green products made in Canada.
Off course rather than look for new partners, Harper doesn't want to deal with the EU because he might be embarassed by his disastrous environmental plan. I also get the impression he only cares about Canada's relation with the United States and could care less about our relations with everyone else. I support good Canada/US relations, but not at the expense of everyone else. Unfortunately his indifference to the EU is a loss to all Canadians.
The European Union has more people and a larger GDP than the United States and will along with China and India be a major force to deal with in the 21st century. More importantly, Europe shares many common values with Canada be it our social safety net, support for multilateralism, democracy and freedom, socially progressive policies, and a free market with government intervention to temper its excesses. With so much in common, the EU could be a strong ally of Canada in promoting our values globally. While I don't think Canadian membership in the EU would be appropriate at the moment (as a few Liberals bloggers have suggested), I do support closer ties and working more cooperatively with the EU on issues of our common interests. Stronger relations with the EU doesn't have to mean weaker Canada-US relations, which seem to be the only relations Harper cares about. In fact as a small country who can be respected by both, we can play a role in bridging the trans-Atlantic divide. While the Bush administration may care less for Europe, I believe many Americans would respect Canada having a strong relation with EU and value our ability to bridge the divide. In addition having 87% of our trade with one country is bad policy. Any successful country will have diversified trade since if you put your eggs in one basket, when that country goes into a recession so does its main trading partner. So we should not just strengthen our cooperation on the environment, but also increase trade with Europe. I would even support establishing a free mobility pact for those under 30 so as Canadians and Europeans can experience each other's culture. On the environment, there is a strong demand for green products so greater trade with Europe could create a market for selling green products made in Canada.
Off course rather than look for new partners, Harper doesn't want to deal with the EU because he might be embarassed by his disastrous environmental plan. I also get the impression he only cares about Canada's relation with the United States and could care less about our relations with everyone else. I support good Canada/US relations, but not at the expense of everyone else. Unfortunately his indifference to the EU is a loss to all Canadians.
posted by Monkey Loves to Fight at 3:18 PM
9 Comments:
Europe is dying, pure and simple. There's no point in hitching our future to them.
The future of Western Civilization (the only decent part of Civilization) rests with the United States and, to a lesser extent, Australia - perhaps New Zealand, Israel. God willing, Canada.
That's all that's going to survive this century in its present form.
I strongly, strongly recommend that you read Mark Steyn's new book "America Alone" or any of his other collected works. The man is a prophet of our age, pure and simple.
Demographics are a fixed fact. No (European) babies means no more Europe - and sooner than any of us realized.
Just look at the crisis of France today...
I'm going to write some more about this in a bit.
Adam - I don't buy your garbage on Europe declining and the United States being the only civilization. Europe may not subscribe to your neo-conservative views, but that is all the more reason we should align with them. Anyways I am hoping that the rightward trajectory in the US will end soon. As for Mark Steyn, he is intelligent in his arguments but wrong.
Europe's population is declining, but this will be replaced by immigration and unlike you I see this as a good thing. Where I live in Toronto, over half the population are immigrants and Toronto is a very vibrant and successful city. Your form of civilization is a narrow point of view. I support a progressive forward looking type society which you seem to reject.
Miles - you may not be interested in demography, but demography is interested in you. Europe's fertility levels have dropped to what demographers call the "lowest-low" levels. That means, regardless of whatever else happens, their populations will not be able to support the social safety net which they've built up.
More to the point: immigration? From where? Europe doesn't need a few thousand immigrants. They're going to need tens of millions of immigrants to replace their losses. Where the heck are tens of millions of qualified people going to come from?
To leave everything else aside, let's argue this from a "progressive" prespective.
1) What good is being served in having the West lure all of the best people (their would-be Doctors, Scientists, Lawyers, and so forth) out of the Third World to do menial jobs in the France and Italy?
2) Polls show that a majority of Moslem immigrants in Europe want to live under Sharia law. As Mark Steyn is fond of pointing out - you can have mass Islamic immigration, or you can have the kind of things that you'd find in Hollands' red light districts. But you can't have both for long.
We already see countless examples of creeping Sharia in Europe. Look at what happened to Theo van Gogh, or the Danish cartoon riots.
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Look at where France is headed. Before too long (perhaps ten or fifteen years from now), you'll end up in a situation where the leading candidates in France are from the National Front and the "Islamic Front" or whatever else they'll call themselves, and who knows what happens next?
If we want Canada to gain from Europe, our best course of action is to start trying to get Europeans to immigrate to Canada. In any case, I expect that they'll be the next great wave. After all - where else in the world would be the best place for a Frenchman to go?
F&ck the EU, this one good thing Harper has done, the EU is nuts.
Adam - I disagree with your assessment. Our population would be declining without immigration. While there is certainly concerns about some immigrants wanting to change Europe's progressive ideals, I believe that second generation immigrants will be supportive of them and they will not disappear. Your cynical attitude towards the EU is not one I share.
Clinton - I disagree. I think the EU is quite important to Canada and we are ignoring them at our own peril.
In Europe (and in Canada too, for that matter), it's the second-generation immigrants which have caused the most problems. They have no reason to form an attachment to their new identities, so they adopt a pan-Islamic identity, instead.
Canada is better able (not perfectly, but better) to integrate immigrants than Europe is. Take a look at the Paris slums, full of second and even third (and heck, probably fourth, but now) generation immigrants, unemployed and waging an intifada against the French government.
I do agree Adam that Canada has done a better job of integrating immigrants, but that doesn't mean immigration is totally a bad thing. Besides I don't see how a declining population is necessarily a bad thing. If anything our globe is over-populated so fewer people would not only be good for the environment, but would also make governing countries easier.
In the case of Canada I think part of the better assimilation is less resistance to immigrants. I do think the Europeans need to get over their fear of immigrants and embrace them and if they were more accepted, there would be less troubles. However, on most areas I find my values are more in line with those of the Europeans than Americans so they are a preferred ally for me over the United States
Poland is requesting the EU military have a NATO command, especially for Afghanistan.
I would certainly support the EU taking over the role of NATO.
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