My thoughts (who else's?)

Firstly, let me get one thing out of the way.  I see that Milos Raonic, the Canadian sometime tennis player who, with his family, was welcomed into Canada as a refugee from Eastern Europe, now lives in Monte Carlo.  That's outrageous.  Daniel Nestor, also an Eastern European immigrant, lives in Toronto.  Good for him.  Raonic should not be permitted to play for Canada in Davis Cup, but I bet he will.

And while I'm at it, Federer, a Swiss, lives in Dubai.  Love him as a player, but not impressed about his living there.  Did his Eastern European wife have anything to do with that decision?  Hmmmm.....Frankly, I would not want to rear daughters in the Middle East, but that's what he is doing. 

What I really want to talk about -- again -- is the spectacular failure of Chrystia Freeland in the NAFTA negotiations.  Konrad Yakabuski writes in 'The Globe and Mail' today that..."From Day 1, Ms. Freeland and Mr. Lighthizer were bound to clash.  She is high-minded, he old-school.  By June, Lighthizer had had enough lectures on Canada's 'progressive trade agenda' to exclude Ms. Freeland entirely from the talks.

"To say that Canada has been out-negotiated is an understatement."

Ditto.  Her insistence on keeping Mexico at the table was her undoing.  The "apples and oranges" between Mexico and Canada are enormous, so that was a mistake.  Freeland, Yakabuski says, insisted the two countries were in the deal together, but Mexico threw Canada unceremoniously under the bus and Freeland didn't even see it coming.  The other reason NAFTA didn't work for Canada was that Lighthizer simply didn't like Freeland.  It always comes down to personality in the end and I surmise that Lighthizer was fed up with "Miss Goody Two-shoes" hectoring him on her gender and environmental agendas.