With new Congress, Canada can expect trade, border flare-ups

[pampango]

Source: Globe and Mail

Gary Doer, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, will have to make a lot of new friends. The U.S. midterm elections have delivered a mix of protectionist Democrats and isolationist Republican Tea Partiers that could make Washington a chilly place for Canadian interests – unless they’re selling oil.

It used to be that a Republican wave in the House of Representatives, like the one that came Tuesday, meant a rise in free-trading sentiment in the United States. But the class of 2010 is spearheaded by a Tea Party movement that won election on a wave of anger, mainly over the loss of U.S. jobs. Many Tea Party candidates promised incentives to keep jobs from going overseas, and a poll of the movement’s supporters found 69 per cent are against free-trade agreements such as NAFTA.

This midterm election squeezed out some pro-trade middle ground of moderate Democrats and Republicans. Canada can expect to beat back flare-ups of protectionism, and – with Republicans arriving with renewed calls to shut illegal immigration and increase border security – border build-ups.

But the new Tea Party politicians include a strain of isolationists wary of integration. New Kentucky Senator Rand Paul once expressed the fear that U.S. sovereignty will be sapped by a shadowy plan to create a common currency with Canada and Mexico. The Republicans called for tougher border controls, and though they’re primarily aimed at Mexican illegal immigration, there was also a revival of complaints that Canada’s border allows terrorists in.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/with-new-congress-canada-can-expect-trade-border-flare-ups/article1784972/

[Drale]

1. You think republicans will try to start a war

with Canada? I wouldn't put it past them.

[glinda]

3. They will do it by collaborating with Canadian counterparts of the

Tea-Partiers and Religious Right up there and they will push new Health Care options, promote hate towards other groups, continue with the ongoing attempt to take over the media and drill drill drill.
They are already making inroads and this is the goal.
Are you listening Canada?

[RZM]

2. People will talk about the 'porous' border with Canada

It's been mentioned from time to time since 9/11, but I wouldn't expect much. Border concerns will be down south. Funds for border security will be limited and they'll go to deal with Mexico -- and even that's going to be a fight.

[denverbill]

4. If the teabaggers had made more of an issue of free-trade, they might have gotten my vote.

I don't really care that much about NAFTA with Canada, but it's a different story with Mexico. And pretending we are on a level playing field with China is ludicrous.

Michael Bennett will give me Obama-care and milquetoast bank regulation and nothing more or better. I'm sure he's another vote for extending the tax breaks to all millionaires. At least a teabagger might have helped kill the unfair trade agreements that killed American manufacturing.