Next year??!!

Carney says he will finalize deals with ASEAN countries by next year.  Whaaaaat??!! Next year!!!??  January?  July?  November?  He's over there now doing, uh....doing, er.....what?  Photo ops for sure, but we don't know what'll happen next year and neither does he.  Nevertheless, next year for sure, something will be signed.  Or not.  And he will still be the prime minister.  Or not.

As the late British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan, when asked what was the most troubling problem of his job, said, "Events, my dear boy, events."   

And therein lies the rub.  Someone should tell our PM that the way it works is that officials do the ground work with their counterparts months, or even years, in advance on trade deals.  Then, the big boys go in and sign them off.  The big boys don't go in first and then promise a deal later or next year or in the next five.

I know, I worked on the original Canada U.S. Free Trade deal in 1987.  We toiled all year and then Brian Mulroney stepped in and signed it on January 2, 1988.  That Christmas, by the way, I got no holiday because we worked feverishly day and night to get it finalized.

Me and Free Trade.

So, Mr. Carney has it ass-backwards, just as he has a lot of things.  So far, he has done nothing except fly around, dragging that wife with him, making vague announcement after vague announcement -- all the while saying he's accomplishing generational deals that will make Canada a "super power".  In what, we don't know?

As I have said, he's pulled off the greatest bait-and-switch con in recent memory and sadly, people are still drinking the Koolaid.

Say what you like about Mulroney, but he got the Free Trade and GST deals accomplished in spite of huge opposition.  He was hated for it and punished at the polls, but he persevered.  And lucky me, I was a part of both task forces.