-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=981323ca-c871-45f0-9e55- 48cc67dcf730
Wednesday » November 6 » 2002 Conference hears call for common currency Floating dollar A Problem: Courchene. 'Protests in the street' will go on, critic says, because citizens have little say on free trade HUBERT BAUCH The Gazette Saturday, November 02, 2002 Canada should seriously consider adopting a common currency with the United States, said one of the country's leading political scientists yesterday. Thomas Courchene, of Queen's University, said such a move would be consistent with the adoption of the euro as the common currency of the European Union, the pioneering free- trade bloc of European countries. "We are continually told that the political objectives that motivated monetary union in Europe do not have a parallel in North America," he said. "I agree with this. But it is also the case that now that the euro is alive and running, it does have major implications for other trading blocs." Courchene was speaking at the "Borderlines" conference on Canada-U.S. relations being held in Montreal yesterday and today. The Montreal conference, attended by academics, politicians and business leaders from the two countries, is the second in a series of five such meetings. Organized by the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy, a national non- profit think tank, the conference sponsors include Southam Newspapers, owners of The Gazette. Courchene said the present system of flexible exchange rates, whereby a Canadian dollar is worth just over 60 cents U.S., is not serving Canada well, and that a fixed exchange rate for both countries is preferable with the degree of economic integration that has occurred since the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement of 1989. Courchene, who is also one of Canada's foremost constitutional scholars, said the adoption of a common currency would not have to mean sacrificing Canadian sovereignty. He said the last time Canada pegged its currency to the U.S. dollar was during the early 1960s, which saw the implementation of social policies such as medicare that significantly distinguish us from Americans. The European experience shows that currency integration is not inherently about sovereignty," Courchene said. He said the case for a common currency remains to be debated, but that Canada should at least investigate the possibility, as was the case with free trade, to be ready to make a decision. "We need to assess the pros and cons of alternative exchange rates and regimes, so that if and when an opportunity arises, our homework will be done," he said. Another proponent of closer economic integration was Stephen de Boer, a trade specialist for the Ontario government, who said the increasing flow of north-south trade requires the involvement of states and provinces, not just the national governments, in negotiations to facilitate regional cross- border trade. "If the North American marketplace is to be integrated, the role of sub-federal governments must be recognized and these governments must be encouraged to both implement existing commitments and to contribute to the development of new ones," he said. On the cautionary side was conference keynote speaker Stephen Clarkson, a University of Toronto political science professor, who said Canada is now in a state of "double constitutionality," in that it is governed by both the Canadian constitution and the North American free-trade charter, and that the two sometimes conflict. He cited the example of private property rights - pointedly left out of the Canadian constitution, but which are included in the free-trade treaty. "It blows the mind of non-legal experts like me," he said. Clarkson said the mechanisms for the adjudication of such differences are "shocking in their lack of transparency," and leave citizens opposed to free-trade provisions with little choice but to take to the streets. "We'll probably keep getting protests in the street," he said, "because there are few opportunities for citizens to express their dissent in our new two-level constitutional world." © Copyright 2002 Montreal Gazette Copyright © 2002 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp. All rights reserved. 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