Foes of U.S.-Canada Trade Pact Vow Not to Surrender

OTTAWA —  The forces that fought the free-trade agreement with the United States say they have no intention of giving up on the issue despite their election loss to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

“There is a continuing trade agenda before us,” Tony Clark, director of the Pro-Canada Network, said in an interview. “I think it boils down to how much more political and economic depending can Canada take on the greatest economic power in the world.”

The coalition of some 20 national organizations, including church groups, environmentalists and women’s groups, was formed in 1987 to battle the trade agreement.

Its publicity, especially a comic book outlining the trade issues, was among the most visible during the campaign that ended Nov. 21 with a majority government for Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative Party.

That cleared the way for the trade agreement he signed in January, 1988, with President Reagan to proceed, but the opponents plan to keep dramatizing the changes they believe it will force on Canada.

Ready for ‘the Long Haul’

Clarke said the activist groups that form the anti-free trade coalition met again after the election and pledged to continue “for what we call the long haul” of at least the next four or five years.

“There was credible commitment and resolve to continue,” he said.

The greatest concern during the campaign focused on the impact that the trade agreement could have on Canada’s more extensive network of health and social programs.

The anti-free traders plan to put the spotlight on any incidents in which they believe the government backs away from its pledge that programs won’t be affected.

Also getting attention will be any workers who lose their jobs as a result of the trade agreement.

Job Increase Forecast

The supporters of free trade forecast a net increase of as many as 250,000 jobs over 10 years, but concede that some plants will be closing as business and industry restructures to serve a wider North American market.

Many of the questions about what constitutes government subsidies remain to be decided in U.S.-Canadian negotiations over the next several years.

“The battle is not over,” Mel Hurtig, publisher of “The Canadian Encyclopedia” and a vocal opponent of the agreement, said in a telephone interview from Edmonton, Alberta. “We consider that we’re bloodied and bruised, but we’ve only lost one major battle in the war.”

The majority government that Mulroney won means that there won’t be another election for about four years, but anti-free traders predict that the issue once again will be the dominant one in the next campaign.