Harper Says 'Me, Too!' in U.S.-Asia Trade Talks

The prime minister's decision to apply to the Trans-Pacific Partnership could mean big changes to Canada's poultry and dairy industries.

Plans for the Keystone XL pipeline might have been delayed for now, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper wasted no time in finding new sources of foreign wealth as he announced Canada has applied to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade group involving the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, and a handful of Asian and South American countries. The application indicates that the Conservative government could soon move to kill the supply-management system in place for dairy and egg farmers in Canada, as that had been one of the main reasons that the other countries had not asked Canada to join in on the fun. If that's a case, then it would mean a remarkable (if not entirely unwelcome) about-face for a government that had as recently as last week expressed its support for the poultry and dairy industries' supply management. Anyhow, Harper also used his time at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hawaii to let the U.S. know that Canada is barreling ahead with the Northern Gateway Pipeline, which in 2017 could start pumping delicious crude oil from Alberta's oil sands, across the pristine northern B.C. wilderness and to a port in Kitimat, B.C., where it would be shipped to Asia.