Mitt Romney's Future Is Canada's Future

Now that the fight for the Republican nomination has been settled, Canadians should keep a close eye on Mitt Romney. His future is Canada's future. Romney personifies the financialization of the North American economy in the past thirty-five years. He did not make his money by making things. He became rich by buying, selling and closing down businesses.

Obama has the audacity to suggest that those who make more than a million dollars a year should pay 30% of their earnings in taxes. Mitt paid 13.9% last year on his $21 million income. Stephen Harper has declared that there is no such thing as a good tax.

If Romney wins the U.S. election, Stephen Harper won't have to skip a step. He will already be in lock step. If Barack Obama wins the election, the Buffett Rule will make its way north across the border.  In fact, there are signs that the migration has already started. To buy NDP support for his budget, Andrea Horvath has told Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty that he will have to impose a 2% surtax on those with incomes over $500,000 annually.

Haroon Siddiqui has written that a Harper Romney alliance would be disastrous for Canada:

Romney sees enemies around the world who need to be killed or kicked into submission.“We should not negotiate with the Taliban. We should defeat the Taliban . . . and kill them.” Squishing the “scumbags” is what Rick Hillier, our own army chief, once said, only to have Barack Obama negotiate with the Taliban, a proposition that Stephen Harper, too, considered blasphemous.

In fact, the whole F35 fiasco suggests that Harper truly believes in promoting a Pax Americana. A wiser prime minister -- Jean Chretien -- knew that joining the Coalition of the Willing was a misguided attempt by those who couldn't to accomplish what they shouldn't.

Whatever his faults, Obama has sought to dial back American triumphalism. Harper seeks to glorify it. An Obama victory would be in Canada's best interest. Heaven knows, Stephen Harper's victory has already done enough damage to this nation.

This entry is cross posted at The Moderate Voice.