Our Unsung Hero.

Now that much of the initial commentary on the US – Canada – Mexico trade deal has run its course and the usual right wing suspects continue to nit pick the few things that were not resolved 100% in our favor its time to thank our team for their work. To remain calm and focused in the face of the ever increasing over the top rhetoric from the head of state of one of the county's involved, namely the unpredictable, divisive, blowhard, demagogue and megalomaniac called Donald Trump, is in and of itself a major accomplishment. For over a year our representative the strong, competent and patent Chrystia Freeland and her team has been dashing back and forth between here the U.S. 'negotiating' with an immensely more 'powerful' opponent.

Even if you do not fully endorse the outcome of said 'negotiations' (and I put that in apostrophes for how do you effectively negotiate in such an unequal position?) the work of the Canadian team and Ms Freeland cannot help but be admired. They deserve a medal for remaining calm and focused in the face of the crap coming out of the unstable sociopath to the south, in particular the retention of the 'dispute mechanism' is IMHO a major accomplishment for without such any 'agreement' would not be worth the paper on which it was written. (A point which has been driven home several times over the life of the current NAFTA agreement).

The other major plus from this agreement I believe is the removal of the Chapter 11, Section B., or the Investors-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism. This mechanism allowed foreign investors to bypass the domestic courts and sue governments before private international tribunals and cost Canada more than $95 million in legal costs defending itself against investor-state claims and paid out over $219 million in damages and settlements. It effectively gave foreign corporations control over our domestic policy as to whom we dealt with. Good riddance I say!

No doubt there will be further efforts to curb the megalomaniac's wish to have the entire world, including Canada, bend over and kiss his arse without question, the only question being how long we and the rest of the world will have to put up with this idiot. Will he last his full term, will his brain dead supporters continue to believe his crap …. probably, but I hope for the sake of our neighbors to the south and the world order his days are numbered!

Canada's ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton, was pretty direct about such negotiations and agreements when he said :-

"If you can't resolve disputes in a fair and balanced way, then what is the use of the agreement? If you can't have some curb on the arbitrary use of tariffs under the guise of national security with a member of NORAD and somebody who is your closest defence partner, then I don't think it is much of an agreement."

Amen to that and thanks for your work Chrystia.

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