Letter printed in today's Ottawa Citizen

I figured they might print this one, since for once I'm actually defending the editorial board. They had an editorial about the debate over water exports to the US, for some reason Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians came up, and she was accused of being prone to "mindless anti-Americanism" and "anti-trade." She wrote in and tried to refute those accusations, in my view unconvincingly.

Maude Barlow is not fooling anyone. Anti-Americanism is the world's most common pastime. I don't know if there is anyone in this country who can claim to be innocent of it -- and that includes me. It's practically the basis of our identity, and it's the glue that binds Europe.

If you do not support the basic common-sense principle that people should be able to do business with whom they see fit, whether they are around the block or around the world, with no "buts," then you absolutely are "anti-trade." And further, pandering to fear of American hegemony is the core argument of the antiglobalization movement, if that's not "mindless anti-Americanism" what is?