Breaking News: Canada benefits from free trade

It's a sad state of affairs when we are still having this debate with the economically illiterate, but yet another report confirms that <shocker> Free Trade Has Been Good for our Economy </shocker>.  For some the evidence will never be enough, and I realize that.  But please, can we move on?

 

"Canadians have prospered...Few countries have provided as shining an example of how to adapt and prosper in a post-freer trade world than Canada."

 

Before Canada signed on to the Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement in 1988 and the North American free-trade agreement in 1993, critics charged that Canadian production would move south, exports would evaporate, jobs would dry up, foreign investment in Canada would deteriorate, the tax base would shrink, and the restructuring would force the country into a painful and long-term funk.

The adjustment was not without pain, but the end result, after 18 years of free trade, has made the criticisms look frivolous...Exports have soared and foreign direct investment in Canada has risen substantially. Government coffers are full to overflowing, and Canada's fiscal situation is the envy of many a rich country. And while many of Canada's top companies have been bought by foreigners, often American, Canadian companies have been just as busy buying up U.S. firms, the study says.