Letter to the editor.

• Position: Brief Article

Facts on free trade

Graham Clayton's comments in "Trade Lines" in the January 2001 edition of Northern Ontario Business make for some very interesting reading. As someone who also attended and consequently became a member of the Council of Canadians, I could not disagree more with the comments.

The "free trade agreements" have absolutely nothing to do with trade. They have everything to do with stripping democratically elected governments of their abilities to act in the best interests of their citizens and increasing the amount of foreign (American) ownership of Canadian companies. They have also caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of well-paying manufacturing jobs as these companies move into jurisdictions that have lower taxes, and more lenient environmental and labour standards. Finally, they have forced government to harmonize social programs so that they end up on a level playing field with the U.S., which has the least generous and least comprehensive social programs in the Western industrialized world.

Graham also mentions that foreign investment...