Monday, December 13, 2004

Regional World

A few days ago, the 12 free nations of South America (everyone except French Guiana) signed an agreement comitting themselves to an EU-style common trade area, currency, parliament and passport. Added to the recent moves by the ASEAN + 2 (Southeast Asia, China and Japan) and the creation of the African Union a few years back, this will leave most of the world in regional blocs, with only a few exceptions left out of the regional game. Russia, India, and the US (and Canada) are thus far not invited to the parties.

I'm not really sure what else to write about this, only that I saw it a few days ago and it seems to me to be an interesting trend. I suppose the question for Canada is what role do we want to play in this new regional world. My personal preference would be for us to petition the EU for membership, but I think we all know that won't happen. Canada will probably be sucked in to some kind of northern Puerto Rico arrangement. Thank you Stephen Harper! God forbid the Conservatives elect someone who actually likes the country he wants to govern!

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