Editorial

Special relationship?

Canadians have often expressed a forlorn hope that somehow our American
neighbour looks upon Canada somewhat differently than it views its southern
neighbours.

Casting the lessons of history to the winds, some even argue that modern
Canada-US. relations show we receive special preferential treatment and
occupy a special place in Washington’s heart. Such notions are bolstered by the
likes of Mulroney and his “special relationship,” by Reagan who touts the trade
deal as “‘a second American revolution,” by endless references to our “5,000-
mile undefended border” and so on.

Far more relevant, of course, are the cold facts.

Inasmuch as successive Canadian governments toe Washington’s economic,
political and military line, this country will enjoy that “special” U.S. smile.

As long as Canada remains a boundless natural resource base for U.S.
industrial needs, a region of heavy U.S. investment; as long as we continue to
allow U.S. ownership and control of energy sources and guarantee mineral,
water, natural gas and other supplies, we are assured U.S. benevolence.

Provided Canada continues to permit U.S. military access to our north,
allows military overflights and testing of U-S. first-strike weapons, doesn’t
challenge U.S. operations in Canada’s Arctic, and keeps talking tough with the
Soviets, we will continue to be “good neighbours.”

But, as events in Panama, Nicaragua (earlier in Chile, Cuba, Grenada,
southern Africa and Afghanistan) show: should Canadians decide to set out on
our own course, to view the world and our own country differently than
Washington does, all bets are off.

Should we, for example, decide to develop closer relations with the USSR in
Arctic matters, joining with others to demilitarize the region and work together,
the chill from south of the border would be formidable.

Should we declare Canada a nuclear-weapons free zone, decide to protect our
economic sovereignty, diversify our trading patterns, the chill would become a
freeze.

Even Prime Minister Mulroney’s jab over U.S. responsibility for acid rain,
grandstanding as it was, was treated as unfriendly by his U.S. audience which
much prefers acquiescence and kudos.

U.S. imperialism’s treatment of “unfriendly” neighbours notwithstanding,
battle for an independent foreign policy and against the sellout of the

eagan-Mulroney trade deal cannot be postponed.

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EDITOR
Sean Griffin

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Dan Keeton

BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER
Mike Proniuk

GRAPHICS
Angela Kenyon

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n the constant big-business push for the
free trade deal, one thing becomes
abundantly clear: when its backers; such

as Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, pro--

mote it, they don’t talk to working Cana-
dians.

We were reminded of this by two items
in a recent edition of The Globe and Mail.
One news story dealt with a talk to some
800 captains of industry in the United
States by Canadian businessman David
Culver. Chairman and chief executive
office of Alcan Aluminum, Culver told the
Detroit gathering that the free trade pact
will, in the Globe’s words, “strengthen the
ability of North America to withstand
growing foreign competition.” For this
man, at least, there is no argument over
whether to support continentalism rather
than national interest.

Culver told the luncheon meeting spon-
sored by the Canadian consulate-general
and the U.S. Department of Commerce
that the Canadian and U.S. governments
should “disregard” free trade’s opponents.
That certainly appears to be the case
already, since Culver was representing the
Canadian Alliance of Trade and Job
Opportunities — the big-business organi-
zation that has spent more than $3 million
so far in full-page newspaper ads and
other venues fighting opponents of free

trade — at the joint government-spons-

ored talk.

And last week, Mulroney himself was
busy singing the jobs of a tariff-free border
at a dinner of the Americas Society in New
York city. Included in the audience of 500
Canadian and U.S. business leaders were
the aforementioned Culver, U.S. ambas-
sador to Canada Thomas Niles and his
counterpart, Canadian ambassador Allan
Gotlieb, president of American Express
James Robinson, and Royal Bank of Can-

People and Issues

ada president Allan Taylor. Afterwards,
the prime minister was presented with the
Gold Insigne of the Pan American Society
by its president, David Rockefeller.

All this put us in mind of a recent
broadcast on Vancouver’s Cable 4 televi-
sion of a speech in Vancouver by former
U.S. president Gerald Ford, who plugged
free trade to a business audience at a
dinner sponsored by the right-wing think
tank, The Fraser Institute. Ford claimed to
the group that the cheap energy that will
flow from Canada to the United States if
free trade becomes a reality will benefit
both Canadian and American business.

Perhaps it will, if Canada simply ceases
to be a separate country in all but
name — and possibly not even that — the
inevitable outcome of an unopposed free
trade pact.

‘ * * *

e’ve received these circulars in the

mail before, and have commented
on such in this column. But we found
renewed humour in the latest appeal for
funds that arrived in our office last week
from the provincial Social Credit party.

In it, Peter W. Webster of the party’s
fundraising committee asks for cash, in the
name of free enterprise, from “Mr. George
Hewison, President, Tribune Publishing Co.
Ltd.”

This tells us two things: first, that the
Socreds’ mailing lists are sorely in need of
an update, since George Hewison, former
secretary of the United Fisherman and
Allied Workers Union and current author
of our weekly Labour Comment column,

hasn’t been president of the company for
about three years. Second, that the fund-
raising committee really isn’t aware of to
whom it speaks.

George, as many readers will know, is
the person nominated to become the new
general secretary of the Communist Party
of Canada. He’s slated to speak at our
upcoming banquet to help launch the 1988
financial drive set for April 16 at the Rus-
sian Hall in Vancouver.

We can’t speak for George, so we’re not
completely certain of his exact response to
Webster’s appeal to finance a party “that
still (believes) in the work ethic” and that
“still holds dear the principles of free
enterprise.” But speaking for ourselves,
we’d like to state that we’re also in favour
of the work ethic. We want to see the
thousands of jobs that are part of the
Communist Party’s program available for
all Canadians — the same jobs that are
certainly not in evidence after 13 years of
Socred rule.

* * *

eta AS across the country are, of
course, gathering together to fight the
free trade deal. We’ve detailed several
examples in our coverage, but nowhere
have we found as unique an approach as
that taken by B.C. resident John
Wilcox — alias “Johnny Canuck.”
Comics aficionados and Canadian his-
torical and culture students will know
Johnny Canuck from the World War II
days, when a muscle-bound champion of
Canada’s fight against Nazism romped
and fought his way across the comic pages.

A classic panel from those comics, fre-
quently reprinted with affectionate tongue-
in-cheek sentiment by several publications
a few years ago, depicted a shirtless
Johnny busting loose from captivity while
uttering the immortal lines; “They had
better build stronger ropes than these if
they hope to keep Canadians captive.”

On aserious note, Johnny Canuck is an
apt name to be adopted by Wilcox, who
left Victoria on April | to truck across
Canada in a three-month crusade against
the pact. During that period he will drive
in his newly renovated 1941 Chevy truck
to St. John’s; Newfoundland, and back,
stopping in Ottawa on Canada Day, July
1. The 46-year old resident of Ganges on
Salt Spring Island will wear, and dispense
copies of, a special T-Shirt and Cap witha
maple leaf emblem framing the stars and
stripes, and the message, “No Deal.”

Wilcox presents impeccable credentials.
His great-grandfather, Oliver. J. Wilcox,
won a 1909 by-election victory in the rid-
ing of North Essex, Ontario, that heralded
the beginning of the end of the free trade
deal backed by Sir Wilfred Laurier’s Lib-
eral government. John Wilcox is a
member of the search-and-rescue team of
Canadian Coast Guard and is taking a
three-month leave without pay to com-.
plete the trek.

His journey is sponsored by the Victoria
and Vancouver Coalitions Against Free
Trade and the Council of Canadians.

Johnny Canuck, by the way, was
among those Canadian produced comic
strips — of which there were several dur-
ing the war years — that disappeared
during the cultural annihilation that fol-
lowed, when the government of the day
allowed the unchecked incursion of Amer-
ican comic strips, movies and other forms
of popular entertainment into Canada.

4 Pacific Tribune, April 6, 1988