EDMONTON -- Former deputy prime minister Anne McLellan says trade and travel barriers within North America must be toppled - and she admits that's an about-face from the Liberal line she used to talk.
"I would be the first to concede we got it wrong when we fought against the Free Trade Agreement in '88," McLellan said yesterday while speaking to business students and faculty at the University of Alberta.
McLellan is now a scholar-in-residence at the Institute for United States Policy Studies at the university. She presented her thoughts yesterday on "The Concept of a North American Community - Is it DOA?"
She argued it wasn't, but said it's crucial the barriers to trade and travel between the United States, Mexico and Canada are overcome so North America can remain competitive with China, India and other hot global economies.
She became interested in the issue after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she said, when the United States slammed its borders shut.
The borders soon reopened, but with myriad hoops to jump through, making commerce and travel more difficult.
"That threatens to erode the North American advantage of NAFTA," she said.
Five years after the 1988 Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States - which bolstered cross-border trading by removing trade restrictions - NAFTA came into force. Mexico was included in that new trade deal.
Critics said free trade undermined Canada's sovereignty and would lead to the United States's meddling in Canada's business. Further, jobs would leave for Mexico's cheaper labour market, it was feared.
McLellan said it's only a matter of time before the United States digs out from its fears over more terror attacks.
"America is going to have to come to grips with the fact that life is about risk. You can't seal yourself off from risk."
She sees an "inexorable push" towards the United States, Canada and Mexico sharing the burden of border security.
"What you have to do is have a sense of trust," she said, adding the nations could come up with joint rules on who or what enters or leaves a country.
