During the 2008 US elections I was living in the United States. I saw countless ad campaigns that disparaged the speaker’s opponents with allegations of every kind, on both federal and state levels. Some of these allegations were true, though exaggerated, and others were wildly fallacious. One could hardly help but notice how infrequently the candidates actually spoke about themselves or where they stood on issues.

I rapidly realized that in a country where few voters would take the time to seek out the truth about how their chosen candidate had voted or the changes he or she had made in the positions they currently held, these short television ads were going to be the basis of the decisions they made. These campaigns were no longer about who had the best ideas, the best track record or the most promising history. It was about who had the nicest suit, the fullest head of hair and the most entrancing manner of speaking. It was all a show.
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On February 5th, I commented on Obama’s plan to impose a $500,000 salary cap on U.S. executives who were holding onto taxpayer dollars for dear life.

Seven months later Obama has made bold moves in the right direction. Today the Treasury department ordered seven corporations, which have yet to repay their bailout money, to cut executive salaries and bonuses in half. The top 25 highest paid executives will have a $500,000 salary cap imposed on them and will see their perks capped at $25,000. The seven companies affected are: Bank of America Corp., American International Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., General Motors, GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial.

The Federal Reserve also weighed in, suggesting the monitoring of pay packages at thousands of banks to ensure salaries do not continue spiraling out of control.
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“Buy American” provisions in the U.S. stimulus package have become a hotly contested issue, perhaps nowhere more than here in Canada. Fears of protectionism have been sounded as “free-traders” prophesize dire consequences. Recall beggar-thy-neighbour, the Great Depression, World War Two: it will happen again, we are told. American protectionism will be the first step. This will be followed by retaliation. A trade war will be sparked and history will repeat itself. So what better time than Obama’s visit to Ottawa for our two leaders to deal with this impending doom. Indeed, solutions have been proposed: put the word “north” before the word “American”, scrap the phrase “buy American” altogether etc. But this is not a semantic debate. Or, if it is a semantic debate we are analyzing the wrong phrase.

Instead, we should be looking at the concept of “protectionism”. While protectionism is generally looked at purely in economic terms, we need to consider its broader meaning. In the abstract protectionism can refer to the overall protection of a state. While economics is certainly a major component of protectionism, it is not the whole story. Also, included are military protectionism, cultural protectionism, etc. Basically, these are means employed by the state to protect its self-interest.
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Now that President Obama has signed his massive stimulus package into law, many Americans are breathing a sigh of relief. But not necessarily the entrepreneurs.

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of running into a former client who I had not seen for about five years. He is a Canadian who made the decision to move to the USA for business reasons i.e. he wanted to make some real money. When I first met him, he was all optimism – buoyed by the fact that he had indeed made more money in his first three years in the US than his previous ten in government-dependent Canada. He enjoyed an upscale lifestyle in Boston with his New York born wife – also in business. And chirped “I’m never looking back to Canada.”
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Testifying before Canada’s national defence committee on the Hill two days ago (Monday, 9 February), Defence Minister Peter Mackay claimed that progress was being made in Afghanistan, albeit at a slower pace than would be ideal. Coupled with this unfounded rosy assessment of slow Afghan progress, Mackay also acknowledged a $331 million increase in Afghan war costs for this year.

Mackay’s insistence that progress is being made in Afghanistan goes against substantiated reports made by the British foreign ministry and President Obama’s new civilian proconsul for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The British now acknowledge that NATO forces are in a stalemate with Afghan insurgents. The new American administration prefers the term ‘mess’ in describing the situation. Both statements are true, unlike Mackay’s, but ultimately fail in describing the real problem in Afghanistan. The fact of the matter is that a majority of the Pushtan, a pro-Taliban ethnic group straddling the Afghan-Pakistan border that makes up about a third of Afghanistan’s population, will not stop fighting the established Afghan government until the Taliban is recognized as a legitimate force in Afghanistan politics. At least one British general has stated that progress cannot be made without making peace with the Taliban. The Taliban insurgency, which made more attacks against Western forces in the last year then in any other year of the war, has repeatedly shown that it cannot be stopped by military means.
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Barack Obama made his first call to Canada today. He discussed many issues with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which included the economy, the auto industry, energy, the environment, and Afghanistan, according to CBC.
What does this mean for Canada? Well, for starters, it is nice to know that Obama doesn’t just view Canada as the 51st state.
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With as many as 4 million people expected to attend the inauguration events today, Barack Obama’s inauguration will be the largest to ever take place. With big screens set up throughout the National Mall area for these people to witness Obama’s inauguration address – one of the most anticipated speeches of all time. Obama’s speech will last approximately 20 minutes and will discuss responsibility and removing the “me first” philosophy, in order to make America a greater country to live in.
To protect Barack Obama, there will be 25,000 security guards, including snipers, police dogs, and air and naval support, as well as 5,000 security cameras.
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Terrorist Goose!

After a short, yet substantive joint investigation conducted by the FBI and CIA, the Bush administration has finally confirmed that terrorist birds were responsible for taking down US Airways flight 1549 into the Hudson River. Canadian Geese, grown, raised and trained in Canada by Al-Qaida were able to miraculously infiltrate the Canadian-U.S. border to conduct their attacks. It remains unclear how the birds were able to penetrate one of the most heavily protected borders in the world.

Bush wasted no time reacting to the terrorist attack, further showing his quick response rate to disasters and his ability to protect America. Fearing a second terrorist bird plot, FBI agents have been ordered to detain all Canadian geese found on U.S. soil. All detained geese will be sent straight to Guantanamo Bay pending an unfair trial. The move is expected to increase Bush’s approval rating as he nears the end of his term.
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I find myself dangerously knee-jerk in my defence of Obama. Sunday night’s CTV coverage of his interview with George Stephanopoulos failed to use the exact soundbite that would have justified Sandi Renaldo’s intro to the piece, in which she announced Obama was now waffling on the promise to prosecute torturers no matter how high up they were in the Bush administration. “See the naysayers doubting him before he even begins? CTV’s chosen snippet confirms nothing about waffling,” I immediately concluded, believing CTV was being unnecessarily critical.

Upon further research, there was indeed a quote that justified their intro. It should have been the soundbite: “My orientation’s going to be to moved forward,” Obama said. He will put the issue in the hands of his attorney general. The attorney general has to stay above politics and “uphold the Constitution,” Obama added, but his administration will focus on “getting things right in the future as opposed to looking at what we got wrong in the past.” Will Obama turn a tolerant eye towards violations of human rights committed by Bush? Is Obama, in fact, a Canadian?

Will there be a Nuremburg for Bush? The question topped the list of citizen concerns on Change.gov last week, out of over 70,000 submissions. Outrage echoed throughout the world almost from the day Bush authorized waterboarding in Guantanamo Bay. A video of Bush’s admission to having personally chosen waterboarding from a proffered menu of torture techniques was shown Sunday night in television coverage around the world. The video was anathema to apologists of the practice who continue to defend Bush on the grounds that it was Dick Cheney who owned up to the authorization back in ’04, which put America on the list of 82 countries who practise torture.
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President-elect Barack Obama Will Make His First Presidential Visit to Canada

President-elect Barack Obama has announced that his first international trip as the newly elected President of the United States will be to Canada.

The Prime Minister’s office confirms that the president-elect has accepted Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s invitation to visit Canada soon after he is inaugurated on January 20th.

Transition aides for the president-elect say that Obama picked the United States neighbour to north as his first trip within North America as president, but they could not discuss the date for the trip or its itinerary.

The Office of the Prime Minister has also said that it has been in close contact with Obama’s transition team and an official for the transition team says that aides for the president-elect and Harper have been discussing specifics of the trip in recent days.
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