ALTERNATIVE NORTH AMERICAS What Canada and the United States Can Learn from Each Other David T. Jones ALTERNATIVE NORTH AMERICAS Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20004 Copyright © 2014 by David T. Jones All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author’s rights. Published online. ISBN: 978-1-938027-36-9 DEDICATION Once more for Teresa The be and end of it all A Journey of Ten Thousand Years Begins with a Single Day (Forever Tandem) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Borders—Open Borders and Closing Threats .......................................... 13 Chapter 2 Unsettled Boundaries—That Not Yet Settled Border ................................ 26 Chapter 3 Arctic Sovereignty—Arctic Antics ............................................................. 48 Chapter 4 Immigrants and Refugees .........................................................................57 Chapter 5 Crime and (Lack of) Punishment .............................................................. 81 Chapter 6 Human Rights and Wrongs .................................................................... 106 Chapter 7 Language and Discord ........................................................................... 120 Chapter 8 The Canadian Military and Defense of North America ..............................142 Chapter 9 Alternative Scenarios for the Canadian Forces ....................................... 167 Chapter 10 Quebec as the Never-Ending Problem .................................................. 186 Chapter 11 Regarding the West: The Best of Times and Its Discontents ................ 222 Chapter 12 The Economics of Inequality ................................................................ 260 Chapter 13 Shibboleths .......................................................................................... 274 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 282 Annex: Presidents and Prime Ministers: Candid Views .............................................299 Notes and Bibliography .......................................................................................... 305 About the Author .................................................................................................... 329 Index .......................................................................................................................335 ABBREVIATIONS ABM Anti-Ballistic Missiles ADQ Action Démocratique du Québec AI Amnesty International ANWR Arctic National Wildlife Refuge BC British Columbia BDC Business Development Bank of Canada BQ Bloc Québécois BSE bovine spongiform encephalopathy CAF Canadian Armed Forces CAQ Coalition Avenir Quebec (Coalition for the Future of Quebec) CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBSA Canada Border Services Agency CDS Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Forces CF Canadian Forces CFE Conventional Forces in Europe CSIS Canadian Security Intelligence Service CWS Canadian Wildlife Service DART Disaster Assistance Response Team DND Department of National Defence EEZ exclusive economic zone EU European Union FOIA Freedom of Information Act FTA Free Trade Agreement GDP gross domestic product Gitmo Guantánamo Bay GNP gross national product GOC government of Canada GST goods and services tax HST harmonized sales tax HRC Human Rights Commission HRR Human Rights Report ICBM inter-continental ballistic missile ICJ International Court of Justice IJC International Joint Commission IMET Integrated Market Enforcement Unit IRB Immigration and Refugee Board IRB-IAD Immigration and Refugee Board, Immigration Appeal Division IRB-ID Immigration and Refugee Board, Immigration Protection Division IRB-RPD Immigration and Refugee Board, Refugee Protection Division JDF Juan de Fuca MD Missile Defense MLA Member of the Legislative Assembly MNA Members of the National Assembly of Quebec MSI Machias Seal Island NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NDP New Democratic Party NEP Natural Energy Program NGO non-governmental organization NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command NRMA National Resources Mobilization Act NWP Northwest Passage OLF Office de la Langue Française OPEC Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries PC Progressive Conservative Party PET Pierre Elliott Trudeau PIF personal information form PJBD Permanent Joint Board on Defense POW prisoner of war PPCLI Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry PQ Parti Québécois PST provincial sales tax PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder R & D research and development RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police RFID radio frequency identification ROC Rest of Canada ROK Republic of Korea SEC Securities and Exchange Commission TRC Truth-and-Reconciliation Commission USAF U.S. Air Force USFWS U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics WHTI Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative WIPD World Intellectual Property Organization WTO World Trade Organization INTRODUCTION here is an aphorism to the effect that no one man is entirely useless. One can always Tserve as a terrible example to others. The same judgment can be applied to countries and societies. That said, one can be confident that the United States and Canada often serve as such examples for one another. Thus, to be sure, Alternative North Americas may be seen as sardonic commentary rather than a search for wisdom; however, there are times when one doesn’t know what one wants until there is an example against which desires can be evaluated. That certainly appears to be the case for Canada—and for the United States. Certainly with the relative success of the “Canadian model” in economics from the Great Recession through mid-2013, Canadians have evinced more than a bit of smug self-satisfaction when regarding the political and economic flailing and failings south of the 49th parallel. Americans, to the degree that we believed we had all the answers regarding economics—and others should take heed of our success—have a hearty meal of crow that we are still in the process of consuming and far from digesting. Nevertheless, as the aphorism recounts, “What goes around comes around,” and we can expect a turning of the wheel, later if not sooner, in regard to economics. Or not. The Canadian socio-economic example may be a significant part of the future for the United States as well. Nevertheless, a truth-in-telling confession. This book originally was inspired by Pierre Berton, a once-iconic Canadian nationalist and historian whose spite and ire was frequently directed against Americans. In this regard, Berton’s Why We Act Like Canadians (1982) is a slim little volume, long out of print and perhaps the slightest of Berton’s massive body of work. But first some personal background. When initially assigned as political minister counselor at the U.S. Embassy Ottawa in 1992, having no previous diplomatic experience in Canada, I turned to available literature. While there is no substitute for “on the ground” experience and direct contact with the citizens and 1 ALTERNATIVE NORTH AMERICAS Introduction officials of a country, such is always very individual and particularistic. Good reading from well- recommended sources, official and private, provides background material against which you can test the specific information that you gain subsequently. Sometimes it is highly useful to assess the generalizations of others while you are still in the process of gathering particulars. And, I admit that I selected Berton’s volume partly because it was slim rather than plunging into a text such as Jackson, Jackson, and Moore’s Politics in Canada, which at 778 pages is a volume that I have yet to navigate (nor have I found anyone who has). Berton’s essay was a memorable read, one that left a bitter aftertaste and lasting sense of irritation over an exercise that I recalled subsequently as a snide put-down of the United States. Fifteen years later, I returned to the Berton work and found it even worse than my memory had served. From the patronizing “Sam” with which he addresses his messages to a hypothetical audience in the United States to the condescending style of his description of differences, it is a minor masterpiece of malice. He leaves the impression that the United States is a blind pig that occasionally finds an acorn, but at no benefit to anyone, anywhere—and only after much destructive rooting about. And that Canadian superiority in all dimensions is so all encompassing that it scarcely requires elucidation. To be sure, it is perhaps too easy to incinerate a 30-year-old moldy straw man, with which Berton may have intended more to make Canadians feel good about being Canadians after the trauma of the first Quebec referendum than to instruct American citizens on their liabilities and shortcomings when compared to Canadians. Indeed, one might wonder whether Berton anticipated a U.S. audience of any significant dimension, hypothesizing that even in 1982, what happened in Canada, stayed in Canada. Nevertheless, even if the most memorable nastiness is often the trivial one, Why We Are Canadians remains an epitome of the attitudes expressed by many