[Newsbot]

Filibuster Cartoon
Title: Integration Rush (click to view)
Date: August 22, 2007

The three leaders of North America meet in Quebec this week and discussed various very mild ways in which Canada the US, and Mexico could foster closer economic ties.

North American continental integration continues to precede at a snail's pace, in contrast to just about every other continent on earth. But you'd never know it from reading the hysterical press releases of the various nationalist Canadian interest groups, many of whom were well represented at the protests that dogged the conference. Bush and Harper can't even be in the same room together without loony tunes like the Council of Canadians issuing dire statements about the imminent annexation of Canada. An annexation, it should be noted, that has been imminent for at least the last four decades.

[Psudo]

It looks to me as though US sovereignty advocates don't much like the concept either. Right-wingers have the border patrols and their paranoia about Mexican truckers driving down US highways, while left-wingers have their protectionism and paranoia of multinational corporations. I'm not a fan of North American integration out of fear it will dilute the principles and traditional values of the USA, but I don't see enough of it happening to set off any panic alarms. Especially economic integration and standardization, which would have a hard time opposing US values.

[raydan]

What, nobody biting on your necro.