Canadians Get the Hard Sell on TPP

Time share tactics – Is the TPP trade deal being rammed down our throats?

by Peter Ewart - 250 News

October 6, 2015

Prince George, B.C. – Anyone who has been to Mexico has likely had experience with the notorious “time share” sales people who use high pressure tactics to get you to sign a contract on-the-spot that will allow you to book an apartment or condo for part of the year for a price. Those who do sign up often find to their great dismay that they have been taken for a huge financial ride, that the housing and booking arrangements are not what they expected, and that they can’t get out of the deal.

And so it is that, in the middle of an election campaign, the Canadian people are having maximum pressure imposed on them, “time share” style, to accept a huge trade deal, the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which has many unknown implications. More than that, maximum pressure is being exerted for Canadians to vote for either the Conservatives or Liberals who will usher in this massive trade deal, which, like the “time share” apartments and condos looks so wonderful – at least as being sold by its slick promoters.

This trade deal is being foisted on us by the trade negotiators of the 12 countries involved, just two weeks before an important federal election. Yet the Harper government has not objected to the timing at all. Rather, it has welcomed, and as time may tell, orchestrated it.

Canadians as a whole are being majorly disrespected here by the trade negotiators and their big business backers. The Harper government has responded to criticism of the timing by claiming that the U.S. is going into an election period also. But there is a big difference. The U.S. election is a year away – giving the American people and their political leaders much more time to discuss and consider such an important trade deal.

What do Canadians get? A measly two weeks. Which goes to show just how much contempt the big players in this trade deal have for Canada and Canadians.

Can anyone imagine the TPP being dumped on the U.S. two weeks before its next presidential election? There would be a revolt. Yet the Americans and Japanese who are the key power players in this trade deal think nothing of dumping it on us 14 days before our election. It demonstrates their lack of respect for us as a country. Do they see us as simply a natural resource warehouse to be manipulated for their own national and corporate aims?

The Harper government claims that there will be plenty of time to discuss the TPP after the election and that Parliament will ultimately vote on it. However, this timing gives the government a floodlit stage to hype the deal with the intent of reaping votes, but without having to show the fine print which, like other trade deals, is likely to contain many potentially objectionable provisions, including ones that violate or erode our national sovereignty, hand over power to multinational corporations, and facilitate schemes such as ramped up raw log exports.

To throw this trade deal onto us using “time share” and “omnibus bill” tactics in the middle of an important federal election is an act of utter contempt for the Canadian people and our political processes. Even more contemptuous is the Harper government’s orchestration of this. For the Liberals to go along with this charade is equally shameful.

This “time share” process should be rejected, as should its promoters.

Peter Ewart is a columnist and writer based in Prince George, British Columbia. He can be reached at: peter.ewart@shaw.ca