Did you hear that Canada and Ukraine are signing their own free trade deal? The Ukraine had another US$ 5 billion trade deficit last year and Mr. Harper wants to sign a free trade pact. With a population 11 million larger than Canada, Ukraine’s most important trading partner to-date has been Russia. And Ukraine is in the midst of a full blown war with its trading partner Russia.
Somebody must have pointed out to Mr. Harper and his Conservatives that there are more than a million descendants of the Ukraine Diaspora in Canada. And what that boils down to is another five electoral districts that might be convinced to vote for a Conservative. Mr. Harper will take the votes for his party any way he can get them. When you see how kissy-kissy Stephen Harper can be with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for just a possible three additional ridings, you understand the plan. Harper believes that he can out-whore any other politician.
But why not be honest and start a “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine? Why disguise it as free trade. The only people it will be free for are in Ukraine. Canada will do all the paying.
There is no doubt that Canadians are sympathetic to Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression but that hardly means we want to go to war to support the cause. Nor do Canadians approve of Mr. Harper being rude to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. All that has been proved is that diplomacy is definitely not Mr. Harper’s strong suite. We all know that a bully is just a coward acting out but nobody wants to test the theory with Mr. Putin.
Nor does Canada need to have the Russians pushing the Canadian envelope in the Arctic. Our very thin presence in that area is only protected by the might of the Americans. And Mr. Harper has not even been making nice with Mr. Obama lately.
For the past nine years, what international presence that Canada has left has only been used to the Harper government’s political advantage. It has been demolishing Canada’s reputation around the world and it is going to be very expensive and take years to repair.
First, we replace Mr. Harper and his Conservatives…
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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