THOMAS AXWORTHY, "LIFE WITH THE HYPERPOWER: IF NOTHING ELSE MEL HURTIG DRAWS A STRONG RESPONSE," EDMONTON JOURNAL  (NOVEMBER 10, 2002).

Copyright Edmonton Journal 2002

The Vanishing Country: Is It Too Late to Save Canada?

By Mel Hurtig

McClelland & Stewart Ltd., Toronto

433 pages: hardcover; $37.99

- - -

In 1991, Mel Hurtig -- publisher, activist, founder of the National Party, and one of Edmonton's best known citizens -- wrote The Betrayal of Canada, a best seller that flayed Brian Mulroney for his championing of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

Now it is Jean Chretien's turn. Hurtig has returned to the theme of betrayal in The Vanishing Country, a cri de coeur that bemoans the perfidy of the Liberals in reneging on their 1993 promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. For good measure, The Vanishing Country proclaims that after 18 years of the Mulroney-Chretien tandem, the only solution to our woes is a new party to reclaim Canada's independence.

In Hurtig's own words "this is a harsh and angry book."

Given the previous success of The Betrayal of Canada, many in the media will dismiss the message of The Vanishing Country as another attempt by an aging enfant terrible to resuscitate his golden oldies -- Mel Hurtig as a nationalistic Keith Richards on a farewell tour. But this would be a mistake. Hurtig has some important things to say and his timing is impeccable, since the central issue on Canada's agenda, now that the fires of Quebec separation have banked, is how to define our ongoing relationship with the world's only hyperpower.

Hurtig's method is to amass a host of statistics drawn from a myriad of published sources buttressed by a generous sprinkling of quotations from favoured authors such as Dalton Camp, Richard Gwyn and Peter Newman. The Vanishing Country is a veritable compendium of recent public policy tracts with information on subjects ranging from tax policy, to history education, to the war on terror. From this cornucopia of data, Hurtig draws three main conclusions:

1) Canada is a very different place from the United States

2) Most Canadians like it that way but a corporate elite more intent on personal gain than the public good is selling out the country

3) This Americanization process is aided and abetted by a political system so wired to the corporate agenda that the only way to stop Canada from vanishing is to create a new party.

Hurtig is certainly correct that Canada already is the "kinder, gentler America" that George Bush senior famously hoped for his own country. He is right, too, that most Canadians treasure our distinctive value system and there is virtually no conscious support for Canada becoming the 51st American state. The critical issue is not that Canadians will ever choose to become Americans but that, bit by bit like water dripping on a stone, the inexorable dynamism and power of the United States will erode our will to maintain our autonomy. The elite has already given up, Hurtig maintains, and as foreign ownership of our assets increases, Canada's room for manoeuvre shrinks.

Hurtig's timing is especially prescient because the debate he hopes to provoke on Canada's future in North America is long overdue. Events are moving so fast in the United States that slowness to respond becomes a defining non-decision: completing The Vanishing Country in June 2002, for example, Hurtig does not mention the September 2002 Bush doctrine on pre-emption and preponderance, the most radical change in American foreign policy since the containment policy of 1947. He does capture, however, the irony of the recent positions of the most vocal Canadian proponents of increased integration with the United States. In the great free trade debate of 1988, for example, the advocates of the Mulroney option argued that to increase both Canadian productivity and our per capita incomes it was vital to reduce tariffs. Now, more than a decade after free trade, with incomes and productivity still lagging the U.S., the same proponents are now arguing we must give up monetary policy, by dollarizing our economy and trade policy, by joining a customs union. It was not enough to sell the family silver in 1988, now we must give away squatter rights to the dining room and kitchen, too.

Hurtig describes this critical issue comprehensively, if intemperately. It is on his solutions that he and I part company. The Vanishing Country advocates that Canada abrogate the 1989 Canada- U.S. Free Trade agreement and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. This might be described as the option of heroic resistance. But, like it or not, NAFTA is now the economic constitution of Canada. It can be terminated but at immense cost. Another response is the policy of greater integration with the United States. Favoured by many economists and think-tanks like the Conference Board of Canada, this would involve Canada joining a custom union (thereby letting the U.S. Congress set our trade policy) and dollarization of our currency (thereby letting the Federal Reserve rather than the Bank of Canada make our monetary policy). This might be described as the option of least resistance.

A Strategy That Seeks Middle Ground Would Be the Smart Approach

There is another approach -- a traditional Canadian way -- that seeks middle ground. The NAFTA framework would endure but Canada should work diligently through the World Trade Organization or in bilateral negotiations with congressional leaders to exempt Canada from the capricious application of U.S. anti-dumping and subsidy laws. While seeking genuine free trade within North America, Canada's horizons should broaden to include markets in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. By an intelligent policy framework of tax reform, debt reduction, competition policy, defence policy, and large investments in early childhood learning and municipal infrastructure, Canada could become the best export platform in the world. This might be described as the option of smart resistance. I would also not be so quick to give up on the possibility that Canada's parties might adopt such a policy: the Liberals, NDP, and the Tories will all have new leaders within a year, and Stephen Harper has just taken over the Alliance. The Canadian party iceberg is starting to break up and out of turmoil, creativity can come.

Mel Hurtig is a doer. To him we owe the creation of The Canadian Encyclopedia, a tremendous national resource. We also owe him another debt: he has never given up on Canada and he has never given up on the value of public debate. The Vanishing Country may be polemical, but as the career of Pierre Trudeau often demonstrated, in public education, polemics have their place.

Thomas S. Axworthy is an adjunct lecturer of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada. He served as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau from 1981- 1984.