From tirade to more trade

Ten years after the North American Free Trade Agreement and 15 years after a trade pact with the US, Canadians have finally reached the consensus that trade liberalization was not the disaster many had predicted. In 1987, critics accused then prime minister Brian Mulroney of “almost single-handedly [putting] Canada in the grave.” Today, Canadians are learning of surprising benefits, such as a recent United Nations study that finds Canada is the second most successful nation in the world at attracting offshored service jobs. The path leads from tirade to “more trade!”

“Brian Mulroney says that negotiations are a matter of give and take. What we want to know is: how much will we have to give? And how much will we be taken for?”
Jim Clancy, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union in 1986 at a protest. Labour leaders claim 800,000 jobs could be lost under a new trade agreement with the US.

“This ultimately will be the end of the manufacturing industries that we need most to protect our economic sovereignty.”
Dave Barrett, New Democrat trade critic in 1991 pans talks to add Mexico to the Canada-US trade agreement. The Canadian Labour Congress says the 1989 deal has already cost 250,000 Canadian jobs.

“[I’m] a big supporter of free trade.”
Jean Chrétien, then prime minister, becomes an open market enthusiast in 1999. In 1998, however, he and the Liberals balk at endorsing the OECD’s Multilateral Agreement on Investment due to public anxiety over the trade deal.

“Contrary to some of our most pessimistic predictions, [the free-trade era] has not been an economic disaster.”
Canadian Labour congress, in a 2004 policy paper, concedes it overstated the possible downside of free trade and many lost jobs were subsequently recovered.

Steve Brearton