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In Pursuit Of Happiness.

© Jackson Murphy

David Zussman, Public Policy Forum president and a principal advisor to Jean Chrétien, the Canadian Prime Minister, has begun to suggest that some form of union is worth the effort.

“Given the U.S. preoccupation with national security, the United States would undoubtedly require that an element of any "perimeter" discussion would involve changing many of our Canadian laws concerning terrorism, refugees, immigration, drugs, the charter of rights, to name a few items,” said Zussman in the National Post.

Instead of shocking the system Zussman suggests that the three powers begin with, “dollarization, common perimeter, and harmonization of standards.” It could include subjects like trade, immigration, and what if any safety net we want.

Paul Cellucci, the new U.S. ambassador to Canada, agrees. ''If we look at [the North American Free Trade Agreement], I think we can conclude that NAFTA has been a good thing for Canada, the United States and Mexico and I think the question is: Is there a NAFTA-plus, and I think there is,” said Cellucci in an interview.

Something else to keep in mind is that North America may be forced into this whether we like it or not just to keep up with a bigger, badder, more competitive Europe.

Some of us in Canada would love to be unburdened of our high-tax big government regime. In Europe the EU has been on which hunt to find nations with, “harmful tax practices” which to you and me, means low taxes. This exemplifies everything that is wrong with Brussels today.

Ireland for example has become a thorn in the side of the EU because not only is it the nation with the lowest taxes, highest growth rate, and lowest unemployment in Europe but now the Irish are questioning the logic of the EU in general.

Clearly North Americans would not be happy with a huge central bureaucracy similar to the one developing in Brussels. But Closer relations between the three nations and beyond would certainly be beneficial.

At 134 Canada should really think about getting engaged with the US-come on already you’ve been dating for over a hundred years-don’t be so old fashioned.

Note that after this article was written, the UN dropped Canada to third after Norway and Australia in its rankings of most desirable place to live in the world.