The Vanishing Country : Is It Too Late to Save Canada?

Rating:
Summary: Mel being Mel
Review: Another tiresome screed from professional moaner Mel Hurtig. Same message he's been peddling for the past few decades: America is bad, Canada is good. Er, make that _Mel's_ Canada is good - his 19th Century nationalistic jingoism doesn't leave any room for competing visions.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting insight into a strange movement
Review: Free Trade with the United States was approved by Canadian voters in 1988, and has now been in effect for over a decade. Though they were once bitterly divided on the issue, today every major Canadian political party heartily supports the FTA and its NAFTA successor. Opposing free trade, and economic integration with the United States is now essentially a dead issue in Canadian politics.

Yet despite the overwhelming odds, some have not given up the battle. There remains a segment of the Canadian population that is so left-wing and so filled with hatred of the United States that they continue to devote considerable amount of time and money to opposing free trade, even now.

These people have their own little subculture, and their cottage industry produces books like these. Mel Hurtig is himself the founder of the "Council of Canadians" which today remains the leading institution of the modern anti-free trade subculture. This book is an interesting read in that it is essentially the "manifesto" of this fringe political movement. It's a lengthy book that covers a wide range of material, but basically all of Hurtig's arguments stem from a few key thesis points:

- The United States is a horrible country with tons of poverty, gun violence, bad TV, etc etc

- The United States government is evil, imperialistic, and is controlled by corporations who more or less guide and promote the evilness and imperialism.

- Canada, by contrast, is a FUNDAMENTALLY left-wing country. Canadian values can be described as left-wing values of collectivism, state-run healthcare, pacifism, support for the CBC, etc

- Anyone who opposes these left-wing values (businesspeople, Stephen Harper, Thomas d'Aquino, the National Post, the Liberal Party, etc) is a horrible traitor to Canada, implicit in the "Americanization" of the country, and thus laying the groundwork for the eventual conquest of Canada by the United States.

- American corporations are by far the most deadly threat facing Canada today. They form the keystone in the sinister alliance between Canadian conservatives (who are traitors) and the US government (who wants to conquor Canada).

- We must therefore keep all Americans, all American products, and most of all, all American businesses out of Canada before they permanently ruin the country.

Now personally, I love the United States, and have no problem with Canada embracing closer economic- and even political- ties with our superpower neighbor. To me, Hurtig's arguments smack of xenophobia, hatred, and most of all insecurity. The Canadian national identity has always been weak, but I think at the present it may be at its weakest point in history. Though figures on the left will deny it to their grave and beyond, Americans and Canadians are growing more alike with each passing year. Economic integration has certainly helped that, but in many ways it was inevitable. As globalization changes the world we live in, Hurting, and the rest of the anti-free trade subculture are making pained screams. They feel increasingly week and frustrated by the new reality. They long for the socialism of the Trudeau era and don't understand why the rest of the country seems to be moving in the opposite direction.

I'm tempted to give this book three stars just because I think it is a very useful book for anyone who wants to understand the mindset of the modern leftist, anti-American Canadian nationalist. This movement has a populist appeal, and it is easy to understand why. It's natural to want to feel patriotic, but in a country with a crisis of identity as complex as Canada's, it's hard to know exactly what to feel patriotic about. People like Hurtig manufacture their own form of patriotism according to their own narrow political beliefs, and then use rhetoric of fear and anger to sell it. Politicians like Sheila Copps and David Orchard have built their entire careers around these principles.

It's hard to tell what the future of Canada will be. It's likewise hard to tell what the future of the crazed anti-integration movement will be. This book at least provides an interesting snapshot in time, and offers a very interesting insight into the strange and frustrated world of this particular subculture of modern Canadian politics.


Rating:
Summary: A must read for those who love Canada
Review: I have had the opportunity to hear Mel speak several times and I recommend that anyone with an interest in the future of Canada listen to what he has to say. His books are a harsh reality check, and eye opener to the past, present and future of Canada. "Vanishing Country" addresses the Americanization of Canada and pulls no punches in naming those who have contributed to dissolving Canadian sovereignty and selling out Canada (at bargain prices) to the super power south of the border. "Vanishing Country" is a MUST read for everyone that gives a damn about the future of Canada. Read this book, and tell everyone else to read it too!!

Rating:
Summary: Mel being Mel
Review: I just had the pleasure of finishing Mel Hurtig's book The Vanishing Country: Is it too late to save Canada? As an American, I feel that everyone in this country should be required to read this book. Not only will our people see what our country does to our closest neighbor country, but also what a wide discrepancy we have between the two countries. Also, you will learn in deed how simmilar our two countries are. In Canada, most college students can graduate without taking a Canadian history class. Sadly, where I graduated from, you are also not required to take an American history class.
Every American should read this book. It will open your eyes to how our country really deals with the international world, and how we rate amongst other countries.

Rating:
Summary: An American who loved The Vanishing Country
Review: I just had the pleasure of finishing Mel Hurtig's book The Vanishing Country: Is it too late to save Canada? As an American, I feel that everyone in this country should be required to read this book. Not only will our people see what our country does to our closest neighbor country, but also what a wide discrepancy we have between the two countries. Also, you will learn in deed how simmilar our two countries are. In Canada, most college students can graduate without taking a Canadian history class. Sadly, where I graduated from, you are also not required to take an American history class.
Every American should read this book. It will open your eyes to how our country really deals with the international world, and how we rate amongst other countries.

Rating:
Summary: Thought it couldn't get better.
Review: I read Mel's Betrayal of Canada(and the mind boggling stats within) and my heart swelled with pride. His latest book is another masterpiece. Without repeating his older books he points to new and profoundly disturbing trends happening in Canada. The amount of foreign ownership in Canada would not be tolerated in any other country. The right always tries to site other countries relationships like france and germany....this is wrong they have simular values and relatively close populations unlike can-us. This is a great read if you care about Canada and where it is headed. Mel always uses facts and stats(that you can find on the interntet if you doubt it) to back up any claims! No BS just the facts to help identify what is happening to our country.

Rating:
Summary: Hurtig is Amazing
Review: I sincerely hope that this book is seen by other Canadians as visionary and revolutionary. Unfortunately, honourable men like Hurtig will never find themselves in the halls of power because of the monopoly pro-US parties have in the House of Commons. Although Hurtig's optimism in his thesis that it is indeed not too late to save Canada is inspiring, I fear that it is misled. At this writing, since the 2004 General Election, it is a sad day when I am forced to write that the largest and most influential political party that actually opposes most US policies and fights Canadian annexation and continentalism is the Bloc. Of course they don't fight these issues for the beterment of the whole nation and that leaves only a 19-seat caucus NDP left that actually fights for Canada. With the Greens cutting into the NDP activist base, and undercutting them in ridings all over the nation (Indeed Jack Layton himself almost failed to get elected in Toronto-Danforth as the Green Party leader ran in that same riding), the future of any truly strong leftist political party (be it Green or New Democrat) is sincerely at risk. Moreover, with David Orchard's exile from the PC Party and it's merger with the Alliance, as well as with the possibility of more US News channels coming into the country (read: Fox News) - all things that have happened since this book was published - I do sadly begin to doubt Hurtig's hopeful conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: This book changed me.
Review: Its hard to believe that a single political book can have such an effect on a person. This incredibly potent book has transformed me into a "patriotic" Canadian, with its examination into the anti-Canadian sentiment eminating from the rightwing corporatists attempting to turn us into an American colony. I've become a huge fan of Mel's since reading this book, and am now reading some of his older works. Mel Hurtig is a hero, a true Canadian, a real patriot, and "The Vanishing Country" is a trip into his world--no, our world. The real Canada. You won't be pleased by what is uncovered here.

Rating:
Summary: makes me more mad every time I read it
Review: Mel starts by telling the reader how good we have it in Canada, with all the space we have compared with Europe or Asia, and how lucky he felt to grow up here after immigrating from Eastern Europe. He then goes on to tell us how, since the Mulroney government abolished the Foreign Investment Review Agency in 1985, approximately 13000 Canadian businesses have been taken over, mostly by Americans. He also says why this is bad due to transfer pricing & other things. Then he goes on to say why it would be a bad thing to continue the "Americanisation" of Canada and gives us some differences between Canada & the United States, including why Canada is better in many ways than the United States. Near the end, he lists many alternatives to the current situation, including 4 things which MUST happen for Canada to survive in any meaningful way. Is it too late to save Canada? I think it's a question of political will. Canada isn't Haiti; it has more to do with will than opportunity.