Let’s not give up national interests to ‘ free’ market

Re: Canada should share its resources, Opinion, May 31

My thanks to Fraser Institute’s senior fellow Mark Milke for making sense of the Harper government’s economic policies.

I was growing increasingly bothered by its pursuit of initiatives that seem detrimental to the long- term health of the country. To name a few: sending our raw resources for processing elsewhere, facilitating foreign takeovers of our companies and importing labour.

Like other lefties, such as former Alberta premier Peter Loughheed, I assumed a value- added economy that created a diversity of jobs and supported local communities was a

good thing. Apparently this path to a diverse and strong economy is the wrong one.

Milke makes the case that this “more Canadian jobs rhetoric” is provincial, anti- foreigner and bordering on xenophobic.

In building his argument for open borders and a “share the wealth” philosophy, he points out that in contrast to the low unemployment situation in Alberta and Saskatchewan, plenty of people in Asia are in need of work and better and higher- paying jobs, and it is selfish to deny them the opportunity to prosper off Canadian resources.

No wonder we are getting trounced by the competition ( who have no difficulty accepting support from their governments to gain advantage).

Having witnessed the globalized free market’s general aversion in practice to the “share the wealth” philosophy, I shudder to think of the consequences for Canada and the world if the Fraser Institute’s dream of the globalized free flow of capital, resources and labour is ever realized. DAVID SHEFFIELD West Vancouver