megram - Index

megram - 55NovOttawa - Index

to be diminished because of our adoption of American-style
economics and trade policy. I worried about the family
allowance — which has gone the way of the dodo bird. I
worried about whether we could maintain unemployment
insurance — which has changed.”
The starting point for the Council of Canadians was
opposition to free trade with the U.S., but, emphasizes
Maude,“you can’t get involved in something like that and
not get involved in all aspects of it.”
The Council, which currently has a staff of 45 in its 75
chapters across the country, has expanded its focus to any
areas that would be affected by free trade agreements.“We
started to get involved in health care, foreign policy, ener-
November/December 2008 • 13 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine
gy,” says Maude. “The water issue started to dominate for
me.”
She points out that the first free trade agreement
between Canada and the U.S. included water in the list of
goods.That, she says, sounded warning bells for her.
“Go into a bilateral trade agreement with a super
power that’s getting thirsty? I don’t think so. The
Council of Canadians first got involved over Canada’s
water, but the more work I did and the more I travelled,
the clearer it became to me that the world was heading
into a water crisis.”
Soon “water-logged and obsessed,” she prepared her
analysis of the water issue, which “morphed” into a book,