Worth your weight in gold......Canada's In trouble

   Have you ever thought about the saying " worth your weight in gold"? Well I would assume that would mean that gold is valuable and to most people it is but apparently not to the Canadian government which is selling it all off. We had about 3 tonnes of that pretty gold mineral in 2015 but not any more, we are down to about 0.62 tonnes this months, spells trouble to me since the United States has 8133 tonnes of it. Back in the 1970's Canada had over a thousand tonnes of gold in our reserves and now basically nothing.(http://globalnews.ca/news/2508940/canada-sells-nearly-half-of-all-its-gold-reserves/?sf20706041=1)

What worries me is if we go into a recession or a depression who will loan Canada money? Think about it like this, if you go to a bank to get a loan with bad credit(Canada debt is about 615 billion dollars) they will want collateral and with all of our gold reserves gone we don't have much to offer up.

Is Canada Part of United States of America? Part two:Military

    Since the very beginning of the creation of Canada and United States they have been intertwined but since the end of the War of 1812 there hasn't been any attempt to invade with physical troops from either side. But over time have they became the same place underneath all the political layers?

                                                                             Military
  Canada has a rich military history full of valor and bravery but over the last couple decades we have been tarnishing that imagine. We have came a long way from the battle of Vimy Ridge to being involved in destabilizing the middle east with our ally United States.

  When many Canadians think of our armed forces we think of how special Canada is with our peaceful ways but as I found on the Canadian forces website we are seemingly intertwined in what ever trouble our neighbor to the south gets into. On the about us section, in the category of what we do, the 2nd thing is "Defending North America in cooperation with the United States, Canada's closest ally." That could be trouble in a world with growing contempt for our "closest ally" and our borders being a great way to them. It goes on to say that Canada and United States work together in North American Aerospace defense command(NORAD) for that goal of protecting North America but the head quarters for NORAD is Near Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States which is almost 3000 kilometers from our Capitol in Ottawa. I'm not sure it makes sense for Canadians to rely on our Aerospace safety from NORAD which is 3000 kilometers away from our Government heads but it would make sense to defend all of North America if all of North America were one country not 3 because it is in about the center of North America.

As one can see below that we are very intertwined with agreements with the U.S not including NATO and United Nations.
"The principal bilateral defense forums, arrangements and agreements with the U.S. are:

• Permanent Joint Board on Defence (PJBD) – established in 1940 to discuss and advise on defense policy issues related to continental defense and security.  Since, 2001 the Board’s membership has expanded to include representatives from Public Safety Canada and the Department of Homeland Security.  The Canadian and U.S. co-chairs report the bi-annual discussions directly to the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the United States.
• Military Cooperation Committee – established in 1946 and meets bi-annually as the primary strategic link between Canadian and U.S. joint military staffs.
• North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) – established in 1958 and based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, NORAD is a Canadian and U.S. bi-national organization tasked with aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning for North America. Traditionally, the Deputy Commander of NORAD has been a senior Canadian Armed Forces officer. 
• The Combined Defence Plan – synchronizes military efforts from both countries into one coherent bilateral military defence plan.
• Tri-Command Framework – signed September 2009, outlines how NORAD, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), and the Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC) operate and cooperate.
• The Canada-U.S. Civil Assistance Plan – signed February 2008, and renewed in January 2012, to facilitate the support of military members from one nation to the armed forces of the other nation in support of civilian authorities during an emergency such as a natural disaster."(http://www.forces.gc.ca/en/news/article.page?doc=the-canada-u-s-defence-relationship/hob7hd8s)
  
  
  Canada followed United States into Iraq, Afganistan, Ukraine and now Syria. Where will we follow them next?

Is Canada part of United States of America? Part One: Trade Agreements

     Since the very beginning of the creation of Canada and United States they have been intertwined but since the end of the War of 1812 there hasn't been any attempt to invade with physical troops from either side. But over time have they became the same place underneath all the political layers.

                                                TRADE AGREEMENTS

   Canada and United States of America have one of the most stable and mutually beneficial relationships between two countries in the world but with the majority of population and power being in the southern part of that relationship, its obvious America has more pull. Starting around 1965 with the negotiations of the auto-pact aagreement the opposition began to get concerned that the idea of free trade between America and Canada may have negative effects, such as job loses and erosion of Canadian sovereignty, but in 1988 the Free Trade Agreement was put into place.

In the negotiations of that Free trade agreement Canada fought to leave out its cultural industries, health/energy sectors and as well as water but the exemption form that was made up was lost on the day of the signing and Canada's water was not left out of the agreement. Canada later found out that in the agreement was didn't get any procurement  rights for American government contracts that they wanted leaving it seem like Canada was giving more then they were receiving. The Liberals and N.D.P parties fought tooth and nail to stop the agreement saying that our sovereignty was being destroyed and it would only be a matter of time before Canada became the 51st state of America. Although the polls showed that over half of Canadians we against the Free trade agreement their vote was split between the Liberals and N.D.P parties in the 1988 elections leaving the Conservatives to win and allowing them to implement the agreement against what a majority of Canadians wanted. At the end showing Canadians that Conservatives are on the American side of things.

The Recession of 1990 in Canada, leading to many job loses and  devastation to the Ontario manufacturing sectors was solely to be blamed on this free trade agreement. The agreement failed terribly when it comes to Canada's softwood sector,failing to liberalize it and with America repeatedly breaking the agreement in this sector to impose protectionist policy's.As time goes by Canada gets backed further into a corner with 50 plus percent of their GDP being from exports many Canadians believe the economy would fail without America but is Canada's current economical issues happening because of America.

  So if the Free trade agreement wasn't sketchy enough it got superseded by the North American Free Trade agreement or NAFTA that came into force in 1994. The said goal of this agreement was to eliminate barriers between U.S.A, Canada and Mexico for trade and investment but this agreement had two subsections ,North American agreement on Labor cooperation and North American agreement on Environmental cooperation, these two subsections were created by the United States so that any partner of theirs would have to follow by American guidelines alone. Since NAFTA 10,000 Canadian companies have been taken over by foreign interests and 98% of all foreign investments were to help fund a take over. In 1996, the gasoline additive MMT was brought into Canada by an American company. At the time, the Canadian federal government banned the importation MMT, but the American company tried to sue the Canadian government for 201 million dollars under some laws that were in the NAFTA. The Canadian government appealed but still had to pay out 13 million to the company even tho the Canadian health board stated that there is good evidence to say that MMT causes nerve damage. That just being one example of NAFTA's power and that showed Canada once again that they must play ball or pay up.

  Now after being pushed and pulled around on both of those agreements Canada is now with America on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Canada started its negotiations in 2012 but didn't sign the TPP until Feb, 2016. The TPP agreement includes 30 chapters: Initial Provisions and General Definitions, Trade in Goods, Textiles and Apparel, Rules of Origin, Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Remedies, Investment, Cross-Border Trade in Services, Financial Services, Temporary Entry for Business Persons, Telecommunications, Electronic Commerce, Government Procurement, Competition Policy, State-Owned Enterprises and Designated Monopolies, Intellectual Property, Labour, Environment, Cooperation and Capacity Building, Competitiveness and Business Facilitation, Development, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Regulatory Coherence, Transparency and Anti-Corruption, Administrative and Institutional Provisions, Dispute Settlement, Exceptions, Final Provisions and with United States Of America at the head of the table of course.

 So with all of these agreements being criticized, protested and scrutinized from their beginnings
why has Canada gone through with it all? Because American wanted it, simple answer. With Canada's natural resources and businesses all under control of American law and restrictions, how is Canada not part of United States of America?