NDP leader says he will ensure trade deals don’t cede sovereignty over matters such as public health, safety, the environment.
Jim Young / Reuters
Canada's New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair greets supporters at a campaign event in Oshawa Monday. Mulcair says he has made up his mind to vote against a Speech from the Throne introduced by a Conservative minority government, should that be the result in the Oct. 19 election.
OSHAWA—New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair said he would not attempt to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, but also would not repeat its mistakes when it comes to signing new trade deals.
“When we sign new trade deals, we don’t commit the errors of the past,” Mulcair said Tuesday at a campaign event in Oshawa, Ont. when he was asked whether NAFTA, the trilateral trade agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico that came into effect in 1994, had been good or bad for the country.
Mulcair cited the example of Ethyl Corp., a Virginia-based company that successfully challenged the Canadian government under Chapter 11 investor-state provision of NAFTA for banning the import and interprovincial trade of a gasoline additive called MMT back in 1997 due to health concerns.
“I don’t think that international panels should be deciding issues of Canadian public health and safety and environment,” said Mulcair, adding that is one reason the NDP is urging a “critical look” at the investor-state provisions in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Europe.
The NDP has been campaigning hard against the tentative Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement reached between 12 countries bordering the Pacific Ocean; Mulcair vows not to bring it to Parliament in its current form because he has concerns the deal will have negative impacts on dairy farmers, auto manufacturing and the price of pharmaceuticals.
Mulcair delivered that message loud and clear in Oshawa on Thursday, where GM Canada employs about 4,000 people and the NDP came in second place with 37.9 per cent of the vote in 2011.
The NDP is running Mary Fowler against Conservative incumbent Colin Carrie, Liberal candidate Tito-Dante Marimpietri and Green candidate Michael Dempsey, and is pushing hard the idea that, in ridings such as Oshawa, voters hoping to oust the Conservative government would achieve that end more easily by casting a ballot for the NDP, not the Liberals.
“Canada can and should have negotiated a better deal. Stephen Harper showed up two weeks before the election and got a lousy deal. He was hoping to get something for himself out of the negotiations.
“I want to get something for Canadian workers when I renegotiate that deal,” Mulcair said.
The NDP Leader delivered that message while acknowledging trade deals, such as NAFTA, can have advantages.
“I think there are always going to be some advantages, but, overall, you have to careful, because the TPP is all about pushing wages down, suppressing wages.
“That’s the biggest problem we’ve got there in the TPP,” Mulcair said.
Mulcair also took some credit for what he viewed as a positive effect of NAFTA, saying he was involved in drafting the provisions governing trade and services when he was president of the Office of the Professions of Quebec.
“There are things in those trade deals that actually improve the ability, in this case [of] professionals, to move, and that’s in the public interest, but you always have to make sure you have the final word on public safety and health issues,” Mulcair said.
Mulcair is also vowing to defeat Conservative Leader Stephen Harper at the first opportunity, on a Speech from the Throne he has yet to read, even if it would risk triggering another election.
“Yes, I will vote against Stephen Harper,” Mulcair said Tuesday when asked whether he had already made up his mind to vote against a Speech from the Throne introduced by a Conservative minority government, should that be the result in the Oct. 19 election.
The Conservative record on the environment, unemployment and inequality forms the basis of that decision, said Mulcair, but, if that were not enough to convince him, then he would vote Harper down based on a desire to end what he says are the Conservative Leader’s divisive politics.
“If I had the slightest hesitation, Stephen Harper has divided Canadians on their race, their religion, their culture and their ethnic origin. What I say, quite sincerely, is: that man, his time is up. It’s time to show Stephen Harper the door, and, yes, I will do so at the first opportunity,” Mulcair said.
Asked whether voters would be upset with the possibility of yet another election so shortly after this one, Mulcair reiterated his appeal to anti-Harper voters to choose the NDP to form government next week.
“Progressives in Quebec have an opportunity this time to work with progressives and the rest of Canada on the environment, on social issues and on the economy, to build the Canada of our dreams, Mulcair said.
Mulcair is heading to downtown Toronto Tuesday afternoon for a meeting with Mohamed Fahmy, a Canadian journalist who was working for Al-Jazeera English in Cairo when he was arrested, and later convicted, on terror-related offences by Egypt.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi granted him a pardon Sept. 23 and he arrived in Toronto Sunday.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau met Fahmy Monday.
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