Political Economy, Civil Society, and the Deep Integration Debate in Canada

For years both before and after September 11, 2001, the CCCE had lobbied for more thoughtful attention to the issue of Canada's growing economic dependence-and vulnerability-to the U.S., and more generally to the increased interdependence of production across the continent. In April 2004, the CCCE issued a position paper, New Frontiers: Buildinga21st Century Canada-United States Partnership in North America, which advocates a comprehensive approach to deep integration. The CCCE advocates reform to Canada's political, economic, and defense relationship with the U.S., including harmonizing external tariffs, developing common trade negotiation policies, and joint defense planning, including missile defense (McKenna 2004). The CCCE also supports the development of a cross-border alliance between Canadian and U.S. business groups including the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters and the U.S. National Association of Manufacturers. An April 2004 meeting in Washington, D.C., timed to coincide with the release of the CCCE's position paper, and a week before Prime Minister [Paul Martin] visited President Bush, brought together leading business and government officials from Canada and the U.S. to strategize around deep integration policy proposals. These types of meetings are important venues for pooling together existing leadership and resources to advance the proposals and, as d'[Aquino] noted, are part of a longer-term effort to build a "coalition around a set of ideas" among business and political leaders in both Canada and the U.S. (ibid). Over the past several years, another m;yor division has emerged within the now minority governing Liberals that again has arguably been shaped by tensions in the Canada-U.S. relationship. The long-running feud between [Jean Chr]étien and Paul Martin, while in part shaped by ego and clashing political ambitions, also in more recent years had been shaped by a sense that Jean Chrétien as Prime Minister was nurturing an unnecessarily antagonistic posture towards the U.S. during the Republican administration of George W. Bush. In particular, Canada's refusal to join the U.S. in a "coalition of the willing" as part of a U.S.-led preemptive attack on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, worried many Liberal insiders, including members of Chrétien's caucus. Canada's lack of support for the Iraq invasion seemed to cap a string of contentious policy debates since the terrorist attacks on the U.S., which led many Liberals disenchanted with Chrétien's