Polibriefs: Your call is important to us – if you wait 10 minutes
Calling the government to talk about employment insurance? You’ll likely be waiting more than 10 minutes to get someone on the phone. Data tabled in Parliament show the average wait time on Service...
View ArticleLetter: Standard for trade talks to be private
One of the biggest complaints by the opposition parties, and followed up by many in the media, is that Canadians don’t know what is going on because, as the statement goes, the negotiations are behind...
View ArticleWhat's the big deal? Actually, there are three of them
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): The 12-country TPP — which includes Canada, the United States, Japan, Mexico, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam —...
View ArticleWhat they say about the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal
“This deal is, without any doubt whatsoever, in the best interests of the Canadian economy.” – Conservative Leader Stephen Harper “He won’t release the full text but Stephen Harper is selling out our...
View ArticleIn the land of milk and money, dairy farmers breathe a little easier
The political lawn sign at the end of Scott Rathwell’s driveway urges passersby to re-elect Conservative MP Pierre Lemieux. But Rathwell, a 45-year-old Navan dairy farmer, confesses that it wasn’t...
View ArticleMulcair: 'I would never be able to support this deal'
TORONTO – NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says he will not implement the Trans Pacific Partnership if he wins the Oct. 19 election and forms a government. In an interview Monday with the Citizen, Mulcair left...
View ArticleA consumer guide to the Pacific Rim trade deal
It’s been billed in historic terms. Eight years in the making, it’s called the Trans-Pacific Partnership – a tentative free trade deal that covers the U.S., Mexico, Australia, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia,...
View ArticleBattle lines drawn over massive TPP trade deal
The federal government has signed on to the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, but Canada’s participation in the world’s largest trading bloc may very well depend on whom Canadians elect Oct....
View ArticlePacific rim trade deal still has a long way to go
Canada and 11 other Pacific Rim countries are trumpeting the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement as a historic deal, but a long and winding road of translation, legal reviews and ratifications...
View ArticleCanadians unsure over benefits of Pacific trade deal to Canada
The majority of Canadians are, so far, unconvinced the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal signed this week by the Canadian government will be a benefit, according to a new poll...
View ArticleGagnon: Canada-Europe trade pact faces real roadblocks
As the European Business Summit concluded earlier this month, it appeared that the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) – better known as the Canada-European Union free trade agreement –...
View ArticleHeartfield: The fear of globalization is really a fear of institutions
Donald Trump’s speech on what he calls “economic independence” was enormously useful to illustrate the contradictions inherent in both left-wing and right-wing reflexive anti-globalization, and how...
View ArticleWatson: Why Donald Trump is the losers' candidate
As we all know by now, Donald Trump hates losers. So it’s hugely – even yugely – ironic that as a presidential candidate he is now the champion of America’s losers, in both the trade and culture wars....
View ArticleCrowley: Countries shouldn't go it alone on China – in trade or diplomacy
What do the impending failure of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and China’s bad behaviour in the South China Sea have in common? Everything. And if TPP is indeed going to fail, Canada...
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