If Canadians bearing the stigma of US taint had any uncertainty about their true place in Canadian society, an announcement today by Stephen Harper should erase any lingering doubts: we are now less deserving of federal government protection than dead meat.
As the Canadian Press reported today:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is reiterating that Canada is prepared to retaliate in an ongoing trade war with the United States over country-of-origin meat-labelling rules.
Speaking with rural leaders in Saskatoon Thursday, Harper said that retaliation will become essential at some point in the dispute.
American country-of-origin rules require all packaged meat to identify where the animal was born, raised and slaughtered.
Supporters of the law say it better informs U.S. consumers, but opponents argue that segregating animals and tracking them adds costs.
It would appear that the Prime Minister is less concerned about the US-imposed costs of segregating, tracking and labelling US Persons in Canada for their country-of-origin than he is about the same thing for pigs and cattle. Something else to remember come election day.
Sorry, this a reach and I don’t think we should be distracted.
@DMichael
Ok, here we go again…
I smell election in the air!
@ Bubblebustin
I hope I smell dead meat.
I believe our Canadian government is corrupt. I believe many major canadian national banks are corrupt. i believe that american big banks are corrupt. And I believe the American government is corrupt. Finally, I believe most major billion dollar corporations (like banks) are corrupt. All for the want of more and more money. All one has to do is google Bill Abram, THECRIME OF THE CANADIAN BANKING SYSTEM, and you’ll soon see why the Canadian Governemt and US government got together with banks to send some of our GNP south in the form of double taxation, with INTEREST!
It’s not right, period! “Oh ohhhh say can you see – from sea to sea to shining sea.”
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I’m neither a Canadian resident nor especially sympathetic toward the beef and pork industries, but I actually think this is an important point, beyond irony and satire. It just shows that the Canadian government is indeed willing to stand up to US hegemony and legal overreach, but only when it affects (I presume) a powerful lobby such as the cattle industry.
I also wonder: if an Alberta rancher buys bull semen from Montana, are the resulting American-by-ancestry calves subject to IRS 30 percent withholding in the form of hamburgers?
@Barbara – OMG!! That got a Belly laugh and a spit take out of me!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
If a heifer from Wisconsin was brought to BC and bred with a local bull, how would the offspring be labelled??!!
@BC_Doc – it all depends on what age the heifer was when she became a Canadian cow and how long she’d been over the fence before she had the calf as well as whether she married the bull or lived common law with him in the field 😉 kekeke!!
Those cattle are easily recognizable by their Slimy O branding
More bulls**t from Harper.
Barbara and BC_Doc – what about the calves in the same Alberta and BC herds as the dual-citizen calves? Do 30% of the hamburgers from their meat have to be given to the IRS?
Another nail in the FATCA coffin?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-31864877
UK wants to be a founding member of Chinese backed development bank. The US isn’t amused.
Another step forward for the Chinese, another step back for US dollar/FATCA.
The US dollar is becoming less relevant day by day.
It used to be insulting to be treated like a piece of meat but now being treated like a piece of meat is better than being a second class Canadian.
@Don
The UK’s momentous decision to join the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) is also well-covered in this dispatch by Sovereign Man (Simon Black):
The next question is, how will the school-yard bully respond?
Time:
“In a rare public spat between the two allies, an Obama aide has criticized the U.K’s stance toward Beijing”
http://time.com/3743845/us-uk-china-bank-criticism/
Even poodles have been known to bite their masters.
The Harper government is in the thrall of special interest groups.
They betrayed hundreds of thousands of US-born Canadian citizens and other so-called “US-persons in Canada” because the powerful banking lobby demanded it.
Yet now they stand on guard for Canadian-born cattle, because the powerful livestock lobby demands it.
The Duke of Exeter in “Henry V” expresses well the response Harper’s Cons deserve:
“Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt…”
OMG, cows have more rights than I do.
@Don
It wouldn’t surprise me if Mythster Stack denied this has anything to do with FATCA. It also wouldn’t surprise me if his next posting is with the AIIB.
Quite the legacy Obama’s leaving.
Obama’s US Food & Drug administration is not only interested in what is healthy eating, but also upon how to reduce cow farts.
http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.se/2015/01/frozen-globe-for-breakfast.html
** footnote: people farts from a vegetarian diet were not factored into the decision
@Bubblebustin
“Even poodles have been known to bite their masters.”
Yes, but there’s a cautionary tale in here for the UK as well. We all know what happens when countries try to bypass the almighty US Petro Dollar. Let’s not forget how Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi’s refusal to cooperate with American financial hegemony turned out.
The United States is setting itself up for a financial world war that it will be fought on over 200 different fronts. It’s just absurd.
Quote of the day:
“The US administration made clear in no uncertain terms its displeasure about Osborne’s decision to join the AIIB. A US official told the Financial Times: “We are wary about a trend toward constant accommodation of China, which is not the best way to engage a rising power.””
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/13/white-house-pointedly-asks-uk-to-use-its-voice-as-part-of-chinese-led-bank
The US seems to forget they screwed the British over the Suez Canal in the 50s by using the.might of the US dollar. Perhaps British historians haven’t forgotten. Perhaps as the UK economy is much more internationalised than the US, the British are hedging their economic bets on a raising China.. Whatever way you look at it the British are not trusting their future solely on the USD. Nit good news for the US.