Canada is a Fake country? 
Gordie, the drunken neocon is now trying to sell his shitty trade agreement with Alberta to the rest of the country. He says: we won't be a "real country" until we can move goods and services from province to province.
What he really means is that he wants us to allow business and corporate interests to take over the country, and to take away our right to make our own decisions for our own communities. The feds are also eyeing TILMA with their usual avarice and greed, with a plan to "harmonize" with the US. Harmonize is just another way to say we adopt US policies.
Gordie also says:
"When are we going to decide we're a country? When are we going to decide that the free movement of goods and people and services is something that's part of what a national identity should be?"
Sounds good. But then there's the fine print. Isn't there always fine print? Gordies vision of a national identity is that every province be constrained under the same trade and environmental rules.
With no exceptions.
When you know who wrote the rules of TILMA, you will see why the Right wing governments of BC and Alberta signed us up in this deal with the devil. From the council of Canadians site:
TILMA has given businesses, investors and other individuals broader, more far-reaching grounds for challenging government programs and regulations than any existing free trade and investment agreement in Canada. Article 3, called "No Obstacles," clearly states that governments violate the agreement whenever they "restrict or impair trade ... or investment or labour mobility." Governments can be acting in a totally non-discriminatory way, within their constitutional authority, lawfully under domestic law, in pursuit of legitimate objectives, and still be in violation of TILMA. TILMA has eliminated critical safeguards in the existing Agreement on Internal Trade on which it was based. For example, the Agreement on Internal Trade has a screening process that prevents complaints that are "frivolous or vexatious" or intended "to harass." It also prevents complaints that would lead to the downward harmonization of environmental and consumer protection regulations. By eliminating these key safeguards, broadening the grounds for complaints and giving complainants the potential to win $5-million in compensation, the B.C. and Alberta governments have created a litigant's dream. Gary Mar, Alberta's minister responsible for TILMA, told a business audience in Richmond, B.C. that, "The TILMA dispute resolution is accessible, cooperative, consultative and enforceable, everything Canadian business asked for." Having given business everything they asked for in TILMA's dispute process, it is naïve to think they will not use it to their advantage.
Facing the Facts about TILMA
Corporations and buisiness interests get all the rights and freedoms here. The average Canadian taxpayer, becomes a second class citizen.
TILMA, signed in April 2006, went into effect on April 1 2007. It was arranged and ratified without debate, without input from anyone outside the governments of BC and Alberta, and the biz interests. It's a form of NAFTA, but with much more far reaching and diabolical consequences.
Just as a for instance: Lets say a province comes up with some environmental guidelines. Like, a premier who recently tried to make a few points by announcing a "green plan". If they don't fit into TILMA's pre-existing framework, it can be challenged by corporations. If the corporations win, they can then get "compensation". From the quote above....Ill repeat this part:
By eliminating these key safeguards, broadening the grounds for complaints and giving complainants the potential to win $5-million in compensation, the B.C. and Alberta governments have created a litigant's dream
So there you have it. Gordie is out campaigning for a "trade Agreement" to turn Canada into a "real country".
But, a real country according to whom? A haven for corporate and buisiness interests to run amok and to do the absolute least amount they can do environmentally, and labour wise for Canadians?
That's not my Canada.
Call your MLA's in whatever province you live in. Write some letters. Make some noise. Here in BC we didn't get a choice. Don't make the same mistake.
You can find your province on this page:
Provinces and Territories
Read up on TILMA, be informed.
Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA)
Crossposted at A Creative Revolution....
