A Matter of Survival: Canada In The 21st Century

NON FICTION BOOK REVIEW  

406 words

Title: A Matter of Survival: Canada In The 21st Century;  
by Diane Francis; Key Porter Books; Paperback, 224 pages; 
$19.95; 

Reviewer: A. T. Connellan, "Diane Francis has set out an 
eminently workable plan for our survival and prosperity. She 
did it all in a tight, terse, readable book. You'll like it." 

Francis lays down free trade line

With the passing of NAFTA, The United States has kicked 
Canada into the global economy of the millenium. It matters 
little whether a Canadian Prime Minister enacts the agreement 
on our behalf, freed trade is to become the order of the day 
for all of us.  

In recent months this country's finest financial minds have 
communicated pointedly entertaining forecasts of our economic 
future. Nuala "Shifting Gears" Beck, Dian "No Small Change" 
Cohen, Ann "Money Has No Country" Shortell, all were reviewed 
on these pages. Now it is time for the inimitable Diane Francis' 
clear-headed assessment.  

Her definition that, " A Canadian is someone who loves the 
country's health care system but buys cheaper goods in the 
United States whenever possible and vacations or retires in 
Florida," will provoke a smile followed by the sober realization 
that we are a nation of inveterate freeloaders, who now must 
become energetic free traders. 

The book "... my idiosyncratic analysis of the news noise 
around us-...". is well supported by her credentials as The 
Financial Post editor, award winning author, commentator and 
outspoken advocate of excellence.

This carefully constructed global perspective is an opportunity 
for you and I to push beyond the negative nay-sayings of 
demagogues, like union bigwig Bob White or the American 
loose cannon Ross Perot, and intellectually assay our role for 
the 21st century. 

There are no warm wet feelings here, just the cold hard facts 
that drive the necessity for a plan of survival. The author stacks 
our system against those of The Triad; The  Americas, Europe, 
and The Far East and identifies the shortfall. Even when 
compared to The Outcasts; Russia, The Middle East and 
Africa, we fail to shine. 

This isn't bedtime reading. These moments of truth are set out 
in transnational terms in a world where intercorporate/international 
currency transfers occur in nano-seconds, where borders are 
invisible to satellite reflected communication systems, and by 
people who don't give a damn whether you go to bed hungry or not. 

Diane Francis has set out an eminently workable plan for our 
survival and prosperity. She has identified the essential elements, 
the method to strengthen them, the formula for combining them, 
along with the directions to execute, and she did it all in a tight,
terse, readable book. You'll like it.