Canada

When is a trade deal not a deal? When Donald Trump is the negotiator

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Donald Trump needed another distraction yesterday, so he announced that he had reached a trade deal with Mexico to replace NAFTA.

Yeah, not even close.

As Steve Benen notes, Trump doesn’t seem to realize his new trade deal isn’t a trade deal:

Let’s back up to provide some context. For about a year, the Trump administration has engaged Canadian and Mexican officials in renegotiating the terms of the existing NAFTA agreement, which the president claims to hate, despite never fully explaining why. The months-long process has been a struggle, and by all accounts, the countries are not yet close to a trilateral deal.

Recently, however, Trump’s team has been working directly with Mexico on a provision related to auto manufacturing, and yesterday, the White House announced that those talks resulted in an agreement. That’s not nothing, and it may move the administration closer to its goal.

But it’s only a step. The Atlantic’s David Frum joked yesterday, “Congratulations to the Trump administration on reaching a preliminary agreement in principle to begin negotiations with half of America’s NAFTA counterparties with a view to revising one section of the trade agreement!”

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Canadians come to their senses, reject Conservatives and their austerity economics

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Back in May I posted about the “seismic event” in provincial elections in Alberta, Canada, the “Texas of Canada” for its conservative politics. Alberta is a lesson for Arizona:

After 43 years in power, the citizens of Alberta finally decided that they had had enough of the conservative policies of the Progressive Conservatives and threw them out of office en masse in one of the most stunning electoral defeats ever. This was a revolution by the ballot box.

On Monday, in Canada’s national parliamentary elections, that “seismic event” redoubled: Canadians rejected the Conservatives and their austerity economics and also the New Democrat Party that won decisively in Alberta in May, handing a stunning come from behind landslide victory to the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Screenshot from 2015-10-20 12:34:58

Canada’s election was the Highest voter turnout since 1993. There is a lesson in there.

The Toronto Star, reports, Liberal comeback headed for history books: Hébert:

TrudeauCanada’s progressive majority got its act together on Monday and ushered Stephen Harper out with a vengeance.

In the process they brought their own resolution to the problem of vote splitting on the left of the Conservatives, steamrolling the NDP to hand Justin Trudeau (above) the first Liberal majority victory in 15 years.

In the end, the election turned out to be more than about terminating the Conservative decade in power. It resulted in a Liberal comeback that is headed straight for the history books.

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