No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
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 Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:25 pm Post subject: Re: Should Canada unhitch its American wagon? |
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| mithridates wrote: |
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080421.wcomment0421/BNStory/specialComment/home
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CANADA'S WORLD: PART 1
Should Canada unhitch its wagon from the United States? A growing number of Canadians seem to think so. Polls show that a striking number of us view our giant neighbour as an irresponsible, even dangerous, superpower. The war in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush � all these have served to alienate Canadians (and others around the world) from a country that used to be an admired friend and ally.
Meanwhile, the economic troubles south of the border � corporate corruption, the subprime mortgage crisis, the rising threat of recession � have made the United States look like an unreliable economic partner, too. So if the United States is in decline, both as a world leader and a trading partner, shouldn't Canada think about hedging its bets by drawing closer to other countries and regions? The emergence of booming China and India as potential great powers has produced an apparent alternative to our traditional reliance on the Americans. Instead of always looking south, why not turn out gaze to the east?
As tempting as it is, Canadians should resist this line of thinking for two reasons. The first is that for all its troubles, the United States is not washed up yet. Far from it. Its global stature has been badly damaged by Mr. Bush's presidency, but popularity isn't everything.
Ronald Reagan was much loathed and derided outside his homeland too. The United States is bound to bounce back as a world leader when new leadership takes charge next year. In any case, there is no real alternative. In terms of sheer muscle � military, financial, diplomatic � no country can rival it.
Remember that, in the 1980s, it was widely assumed that the age of U.S. dominance was coming to an end. Historian Paul Kennedy, pointing to Washington's rising debts, among other things, said the country was suffering from "imperial overstretch" and would soon lose its superpower status. In the same vein, it was predicted that a rising Japan would overtake the United States as the world's top economic power, just it is predicted today that India and China will.
In the event, the U.S. economy came back to experience its longest postwar expansion while Japan went into a period of stagnation from which it has still not fully recovered. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington was heralded not just as one of the superpowers, but the world's only superpower. It still is. U.S. military spending is greater than that of the European Union, China and Russia combined. Its economy is still the locomotive of the world economy, and of course by far the biggest market for Canadians goods and services.
The second reason for not hitching up to new wagons is that, well, their wheels could come off. China's rise is a wonder to behold and India's dynamism inspiring, but both have immense problems. China has rural poverty, an export-addicted economy, epic pollution, restive minorities (such as the Tibetans) and, worst of all, an archaic political system ill-equipped to deal with these problems. India has corruption, crumbling infrastructure, a lacklustre education system and persistent divisions of caste, language and ethnicity.
Naturally, we should try to maintain good relations with both (while remaining free to criticize when we must). And of course, we should do everything we can to drum up more trade, improving on Canada's sorry record at penetrating Asian markets.
But, in values as well as in geography, we are still closest to the United States � still the best friend, ally and trading partner we have, and far from a spent force. |
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I thought this was great balanced article. Thanks for posting. |
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