Just got back from the opening session of the conference, which we followed up by taking a trip to Boston Pizza. The attendance isn’t huge, but it’s a decent size, maybe 100 people in total. Tonight there was one panel, with three speakers, followed by wine and cheese (or beer and cheese if you’re me). We got all the usual stuff at registration – a lanyard with a nametag, a folder full of conference stuff, etc.

First, a brief rundown on the state of affairs at this conference. The location is not the best in the world, because all we could hear in the background tonight was the volleyball/dodgeball being played in the gym adjacent (but a level below) to the conference room. There is no wireless access, which kind of surprised me, but there are some wired jacks, so I am bringing a network cable tomorrow – I just won’t be able to make it an entire day without Internet. And most disconcertingly, Megan and I are probably the youngest at the conference, with maybe only six to ten other people even close to our age range. So at a conference about globalization and changes that may only manifest themselves twenty years from now, almost no one who will be affected is represented. Sad; though Dickson made a good point that the conference really wasn’t advertised to anyone other than the academic-types taking part…only because I was browsing around did I find it.

Tonight’s session was titled, Perspectives on US Power – Quebec, Mexico and English Canada. The three panelists were Dorval Brunelle from Quebec, Alejandro Alvarez from Mexico, and Ricardo Grinspun from Ontario (unfortunately I cannot link to their bios directly, but you can get to them from the speakers page). I must say, of the three, I liked Mr. Brunelle best – he is an excellent speaker and added just the right amount of humor, deliberate or otherwise (at one point when talking about Quebec he said “my country” when he meant to say “my province”). Believe it or not, I took notes tonight so I could process what I heard. Here are some highlights:

• It was mentioned that Norway is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year.
• Mr. Brunelle on the USA: “Everyone there is either caught in a hurricane or asleep at the switch.”
• A joke someone told Mr. Brunelle: “Canada is the only country in the world with two capital cities: Washington and London.”
• The main point of his speech was that thus far, Quebec has managed to stave off rampant privatization that other provinces have seen because most politicians are too afraid to make drastic changes in the province.
• Mr. Grinspun talked about proposals for deeper integration with the United States, and warned that proposals for a common currency will most likely reappear sometime in the future.
• TINA – “There Is No Alternative” (the way our politicians have marketed integration with the United States to us)
• Mr. Grinspun basically said that Canada is on a path of further harmonization with the United States, a path which must be resisted to “strengthen democracy and improve sovereignty.”
• We learned from Mr. Alvarez that after the fluctuations in oil prices in the 70s, the US embarked on a major restructuring of the economy which greatly affected Mexico. The result has been that the Mexican states that share a border with the United States have the best standard of living, while those further south (with the exception of Mexico City) have the lowest. The problem is that the majority of the population is in the south, not the north.
• The so-called “NAFTA+” is really all about US Security interests.
• The question was raised: “In the wake of the terrible hurricanes, will the US pursue the resources of others even more aggressively than they already have?”

All that from only the first session. This is definitely going to be an interesting conference!

Read: Globalism Conference

I am off tonight to the opening of Resisting the Empire: Challenges to US Power. It’s a conference taking place here in Edmonton at the University of Alberta, sponsored by the university’s Globalism Project and the Parkland Institute. I was looking at upcoming events at the UofA over the weekend, and came across the conference. It interested me enough to register, and share it with Megan who is also attending.

Just like previous conferences I have attended, I’ll be using a special image (shown at right) for posts related to this conference. I hope they let me in tonight – I faxed the registration earlier this week but didn’t hear anything back. Given the current economic and political climate, the content of the conference should indeed be interesting.

I am by no means anti-American, but I am not really pro-Canadian either. I am looking forward to finding out whether or not this is a USA-bashing conference, or something more intelligent.

Read: Globalism Conference