So according to this, Canada has given up some of its sovereignty by not participating in the missile defense plan.
[U.S. Ambassador Paul] Cellucci said the U.S. believes the Martin government has now given up some of Canada’s sovereignty by turning its back on joining the missile defence plan.
One has to think hard to understand what the fuck he is talking about, because last I recall, sovereignty is the rule of oneself as an independent nation. Baring any sort of argument on the role of the Queen and the Governor General, I firmly believe it to be true that Canada is a sovereign nation. Deciding to not participate in something as a nation seems like a pretty sovereign act to me.
After looking up the definition, one of the variants shed some light: n 1: government free from external control
So what I believe what Celucci meant is that by not participating in the missile defense plan we have given up some of our sovereignty because we leave ourselves exposed for missile attacks, we have a reduced set of possible responses to a missile threat and thus less control.
The obvious rebuttal: Canada gives up some of its sovereignty if and ONLY if the missile defense plan works. It doesn’t, and is unlikely to work in the next 5-10 years.
I am not going to lose any sleep at night knowing our money is not going into an expensive program that doesn’t work.
Don’t even get me started on the fact that its the ports we should be worried about.