Great citation of an article. Mind you, the author is a known to be right wing, that being said what he said is pretty accurate IMHO.
I think France does think it should be the US versus ??? and France wants to lead the ???
My Canadian point of view is that I think Canada should be part of a greater whole that includes the US and forces us all to adopt measures that are beneficial to mankind.
Any time there is a big power and a small power (I use that term loosely in reference to Canada) the big power is going to tend to get its own way a bit more regardless of how magnanimous the larger entity is.
When NAFTA replaced the US/Canada FTA (free trade agreement) Canada gained a potential ally in addressing US unfair trade practices. Hopefully if we get a few more countries from the Americas we’d all rise to the highest common denominator. That is the hard part, it’s too easy to drop to the lowest common denominator.
It’s a pity France didn’t take this view. I know with agricultural subsidies it’s the French who seem to be the worst offenders, perhaps that’s why they don’t want to work under the same umbrella that the US uses?
I wish more leaders understood that a rising tide floats all boats. The pie is always bigger when everybody co-operates.
BB