As we have entered the 21st century, we cannot help the feeling that we are being slowly cheated and robbed out of our own nation. With our dollar worth an entire 40 percent less than the American greenback, and a government oblivious to our currency's condition, many businesses are starting to use ruthless guerrilla tactics, selling our nation out, and heading south of the border. The American takeover of Canadian business is hardly a new thing: over the past twelve years, direct investment in Canada from the United States has surpassed an amazing $800 billion, and the figure is growing rapidly. There is a distinctive difference between passed invasions, and the current wave of sellou ...view middle of the document...
S. markets, in much higher volumes than those of the Canadian markets.Two-thirds of the world's top 50 multi-national corporations are American based; never before has our entire planet been so directly wired into a single economic source. This has had a phenomenal effect on the way Canadian companies have been able to conduct their business.While Ottawa was trying to decide whether or not Canada's banks would be allowed to handle car leasing, the Detroit based corporate giant General Motors Corp., (the number one ranked Fortune 500© company) stepped in and said the move (somehow) would dramatically endanger the assembly plant in Ste-Therese, Quebec. The banks were immediately pushed aside, and the proposal was shut down, with no reason given.The realization that globalization absolutely guaranteed that playing fields would not be equal came too late for many. Globalization had once been promised to increase business and multiply profits; however the end result turned out to eliminate many, as it meant only one thing: Americanization of the world's economy.The race to take over Canadian business received its greatest thrust on January 1, 1989 with the introduction of the Free Trade Agreement. Since then, trade between the United States and Canada has almost tripled, as it now totals $1.3 billion daily, as opposed to the $500 million daily average in 1988.While Canada's economic axis once drifted between East and West, the Free Trade Agreement had completely spun it around, tilting it completely to the south. The Free Trade Agreement was later strengthened in 1994 with the introduction of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which ensured that we were no longer citizens of our own distinct nation, but of a continent.Aimed at the elimination of tariffs, free trade agreements seldom respect original boundaries. As the economies combine, the possibility arises that the free trade partners can expand their relations, to allow various degrees of free movement of people and money. The largest example of economic integration can be found in the European Union. Many of Europe's nations have already begun to use the same currency (the Euro Dollar). The next s...
