Transcripts

"Commentary"-Don't Blame Canada

SUSIE GHARIB: In tonight's commentary, America's problems should not be blamed on Canada. Here's Chrystia Freeland, U.S. managing editor at "The Financial Times." CHRYSTIA FREELAND, US MANAGING EDITOR, FINANCIAL TIMES: Remember blame Canada, the "South Park" ditty about how America's neighbor to the north is responsible for all of this nation's ills? Part of the joke, of course, was that Canada was too marginal to the American discourse to be legitimately blamed, or credited, for much of anything. Against this cultural backdrop, the sudden emergence of Canada as a player in the U.S. presidential race is not something most pundits would have predicted.

And yet, in the to-and-fro between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over NAFTA, that is exactly what happened. Although this particular dispute was about a specific trade deal, Canada really owes its 15 minutes of American fame to a broader national anxiety about globalization and technological change and their impact on the average U.S. worker. The hardship caused by these forces, which have hit men without a college education most brutally, has been exacerbated by the current U.S. economic slowdown. Federal Reserve out this month showed that, for the first time in five years, American households are getting poorer.

Thinner pocketbooks inevitably prompt people to look for simple solutions. But in real life, the fixes are probably complicated and long- term. To compete in the world economy, America needs a better educational system, healthcare reform and an overhaul of the nation's finances. It is a lot easier, especially on the campaign trail, to just point the finger across the border or to more distant culprits, like China. In an era of global economic interdependence, that could be a dangerous impulse. I'm Chrystia Freeland.