Wednesday Salon West 2.0 – Sept 21st

Dear Friends of Wednesday Salon West (WSW),

Thank you all for your continuous participation (in person and on-line), for your wonderful insights & ideas and for your most excellent tributes to the cult of Bacchus. Hopefully over the summer you have all recharged your batteries and are ready for the restart! Yes, we are calling us back to order for the September edition of the WSW, with the launch of the 2.0 version.

Why WSW 2.0? In response to trends in your comments, we are introducing:

• WSW grouping on LinkedIn – so you can post links/comments to share with the group as well as be able to obtain each other’s e-mails (without going through the chair!)
• While keeping some diversity to the conversation linked to current events and other ideas, there will now be one major topic per session – that we will be exploring in more detail over about an hour. It will require that you read at the very least the few factoids shared below and ideally, at least some of the background links shared.

So in addition to the recent interesting events in politics in BC, federally and municipally, the major topic for September is “US vs.  Canada: Busting the myths” – how are we the same, how are we different and where are we heading on our collective boat i.e our continent? And for those of you who need to, yes, podemos hablar de Mexico tambien. A few leads:

• 1. In The Shadow of a Stumbling Giant? Canada/U.S. after the impact of over two decades of NAFTA http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/nafta-alena/nafta5_section04.aspx?lang=en&view=d, see recent McGill Conference “Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations including a talk by Brian Mulroney – http://bcooltv.mcgill.ca/Viewer1/?RecordingID=66439 and here for some “wise” future predictions http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Impact+debt+crisis+Canada+ranges+from+benign+extreme/5173988/story.html
• 2. A question of money and interests? The US is by far Canada’s largest trading partner, accounting for about 75% of exports and 63% of imports – and notably Canada is the single largest foreign supplier of energy to the United States–providing 20% of U.S. oil imports and 18% of U.S. natural gas imports – http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2089.htm
• 3. A question of values? 2003’s Adams “Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values” and his 2008 update http://www.yorku.ca/robarts/projects/canada-watch/post_bush/pdfs/Canwatch%20Adams%20final%20.pdf
• 4. USA has almost 3 times more naturally protected areas as a percentage of total land than Canada- http://www.unitednorthamerica.org/simdiff.htm!!!
• 5. Despite the loonie being above parity with the U.S. dollar, we now pay 20% more for than Americans on same items while years ago the difference was only 7% – http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/flaherty-irritated-by-canada-us-price-gap/article2156276/
• 6. Is it COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) to “buy American”? See Fraser institute report “Skating on thin ice: Canadian-American Relations in 2010 and 2011” http://www.fraserinstitute.org/research-news/research/display.aspx?id=15952
• 7. Can the US demand/impose its ideas on national security on Canadians? http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21032
• 8. The views of a recent US ambassador to Canada – David Wilkins interviewed by Steve Paikin – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdaVz6h4dv8 and the current one – David Jacobson interviewed by Maclean’s http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/14/macleans-interview-u-s-ambassador-david-jacobson/
• 9. Did anyone mention health care and education?
• 10. And last, but not least – immigration!!!

As always bring your questions, comments, ideas and musings for the mutual enjoyment and knowledge advancement of the gathering. And come and enjoy!