Cross-posted from a web-note to my MP and to the Minister of International Trade

I posted this at Let's Talk TPP (it correctly detected my MP). Here's a cc to my blog and directly to those two e-mail boxes.

To: the Hon. Ron McKinnon, member for Coquitlam -- Por

To: the Hon. Chrystia Freeland, Miniister of International Trade

There is so much to dislike about the TPP that I don't know where to start but here are my hottest hot-button issues:

* I believe supply management safeguards our food supply by making sure we regulate the farmers that are producing the daily staples we all depend on -- especially important for largely fluid based food stuffs as eggs and milk.

* I believe supply management keeps the carbon footprint of these food supplies down which is of net benefit.

* I believe copyrights should expire in a reasonable amount of time. Tying them to "Steamboat Willie" as the US will insist we do will starve out the "Commons" of copyright-expired public domain.

* I believe the US Patent system is broken and until they fix it nobody can afford to make IP treaties with them.

* I believe the TPP was signed illegitimately by a Minister of Trade who knew his legitimacy was fast evaporating and the previous government did not have the moral fortitude to run on the contents of the TPP. It was always trust us. I didn't. Events have shown that I shouldn't have. Accepting the TPP anyway is not part of the change that Canadians voted for. I voted for a party that opposed the TPP. You, Mr. McKinnon said very little at the debate about it either way but the wish of this constituent goes against it directly.

There are many other talking points: TPP-mandated DRM is troubling, right of foreign entities to sue made-in-Canada environmental protections is worse; American patent protections for drug companies will raise our health care costs for no good reason. But all of these only re-inforce my conclusion about this deal:

For the TPP, Canada gives up far too much and gets too little in return. It was negotiated for the benefit of plutocrats and multi-national corporations and too little benefit will "trickle down" (that myth! that old tired lie that Reagan, Thatcher and Mulroney pimped to us 30 years ago! shame, shame...) to us ordinary people. Let it die, please.

Sincerely,

Arthur N. Klassen