jje1000
Senior Member
Ultimately, the US is an unstoppable force- it will either get what it wants, or it will poison NAFTA and make it untenable.
Canada 'extremely worried' about NAFTA: Ambrose
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-extremely-worried-about-nafta-ambrose-1.3642290
And a bit of a contradiction on Trudeau's part regarding M-103 and Quebe's Bill 62:
http://www.torontosun.com/2017/10/21/bill-62-shows-trudeaus-islamophobia-hypocrisy
Canada 'extremely worried' about NAFTA: Ambrose
“I’m hearing that people are extremely worried about where this is going, and people use language behind the scenes like 'it looks like the Americans are driving towards a cliff on this, and Canada will have to follow' and we don’t want to see that," said Ambrose in an interview with Evan Solomon, host of CTV’s Question Period.
There, the American trade negotiators put demands on the table, including on auto and dairy, that Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland called "unconventional" and "troubling" in the round four closing news conference.
"The American’s demands are completely unreasonable. They may not seem unreasonable for the Americans but they are definitely unreasonable for the Mexicans and Canadians, and they put NAFTA at risk," said Ambrose, who prior to joining the NAFTA team was interim leader of the federal Conservatives.
'Trump has set himself up to win'
The U.S. has set the stage for them to either pull out, or get the "America first" deal they’ve been seeking. Either way, that doesn’t put Canada in a very good spot, said Ambrose.
"The way things are headed, Trump wins either way, but Canada does not," she said. "Trump has set himself up to win no matter what."
Doer said Canada should "talk over the White House and over the negotiating table" and leverage the argument that though a NAFTA pullout will have consequences south of the border.
"It won’t be without consequences in the United States as well," said Doer. "It’s not necessarily a win to get a one-day headline and have unemployment in your own country," he said of Trump removing the U.S. from the deal.
Ambrose said that though the deal won’t unravel overnight if Trump tweets he’s pulling out, it would create economic uncertainty.
The one "shred of optimism"-- as Ambrose put it -- for the Canadian government is that there is about a month before round five of renegotiations get underway in Mexico Nov. 17.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-extremely-worried-about-nafta-ambrose-1.3642290
And a bit of a contradiction on Trudeau's part regarding M-103 and Quebe's Bill 62:
The hypocrisy Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau displayed last week regarding his often-stated commitment to rooting out “Islamophobia” in Canada is breathtaking.
That’s because now that he’s confronted with what, according to his own definition, is a textbook example of “Islamophobia” — Bill 62 passed last week by the Liberal government of Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard — he’s hedging his bets and running for cover.
He’s doing so even while Liberal-concocted public hearings into a Liberal MP’s so-called “anti-Islamophobia” motion, M-103, continue on Parliament Hill.
The ostensible purpose of Bill 62 is to ensure religious neutrality in the provision of public services in Quebec, both for those who provide them and the public who use them.
But in effect, Bill 62 targets Muslims, in its stipulation neither public servants nor the public they serve can have their faces covered.
Yet ever since the passage of Bill 62 in Quebec, Trudeau’s been back-pedalling and running around in circles, saying while he opposes the niqab ban and is committed to the Charter, it’s up to the Quebec government to decide the issue.
In reality, the Trudeau government can lead or participate in various legal challenges to Bill 62 -- and there’s going to be lots of them.
Indeed, given Trudeau’s previous statements that defending the right of Muslim women to wear the niqab (very few do in Canada) goes to his “core values”, it’s hard to see how he can pursue any other course of action and retain his credibility.
But, for now, Trudeau is clearly worried that taking such a public stand on the issue could undermine federal Liberal support in Quebec — particularly during a federal byelection race to be decided Monday — since Bill 62 has broad popular appeal there.
http://www.torontosun.com/2017/10/21/bill-62-shows-trudeaus-islamophobia-hypocrisy