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Comment by flycaliguy | Hacker News Reader

I'm excited to see the TPP potentially become an election issue in the recently ignited campaign. Really hoping the NDP brings both this mess and Bill C-51 up front so maybe we can squeeze some democracy into the process.

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If you read the Liberal platform, the way the TPP has been developed flies directly in the face of their commitments for running government. It's a great opportunity for them to highlight their platform using a law that will have real applicability to every Canadian. It would also be a way for them to put their money where their mouth is. ;)

From what I've seen, Tom Mulcair is the only Canadian politician that seems to be in favour of the TPP. His criticism of Harper is that Harper is too weak to see it all the way through to a deal (implying an NDP gov't would). Unless he's changed position on that he's the one to avoid on these issues.

He is in favour of a deal. He wants to see the text before making any decisions about this deal.

It's very clearly not in our best interest to be involved in the TPP. The Canadian position should be: HECK NO! regardless of your position left, right, or center. We have nothing to gain, and quite a bit to lose if we join this, so under any terms it is in the best interest of every Canadian that no deal goes through.

Tom Mulcair is the only one championing these proceedings. Harper is involved because he's our current PM, but I don't think he's terribly enthusiastic about the situation.

Do you know where the Liberals stand on the TPP (including and excluding Trudeau)?

Interesting. I know that the dairy farmer's are going to get a chance to flex their influence over conservative rural seats if things don't fall in their favour. Likewise manufacturing bases are going to be shook up. My take away is not that Mulcair would see these decisions through. More so that he feels Harper has softened Canadian influence so much over the past decade that we don't have the negotiation power to stand up for Canadian interests. I think he will present TPP as leadership test which Harper has failed.

In my personal opinion Harper started off as a good leader because he did exactly what he said he would do. Lately (past couple of years) I get the feeling he has been a bit of a loose canon, and I feel like the government that had been representing the public's desires fairly well became suddenly divorced from what the people want now. We've seen law after law go through that nobody was in favour of, so it's kind of feeling like having Jean Chretien back with his autocratic 'dictatorship' leadership style.

Having said my opinion on Harper's leadership, I feel that Harper has acted well in this situation, not a failure at all. It's in our best interest to not be in this deal, or if we must for us to negotiate the terms that give us benefit and limit the sovereignty we have to forfeit. That seems to be the position we are in now so I'd say he's done an okay job of putting us where we need to be. Let's hope we get get the courage to ditch the TPP entirely!

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