On evidence-free assertions

Far too much of corporate Canada has been pushing for anti-government agreements by shrieking non-stop about "internal trade barriers". But when economists who don't share the same anti-government animus have made the reasonable request for some indication of what trade barriers the corporate crowd actually wants to see dealt with, the usual answer has been either to point to one of a tiny number of examples which could be (and in some cases have been) far more easily dealt with individually, or to make up numbers rather than even answering the question.

Now, one might assume that the corporate powers that be simply don't want to give ammunition to what they perceive as their opponents. But when one of the country's leading political journalists presents a request for a list of the barriers being dealt with - in the context of a post which includes absolutely no suspicion toward the free-trade position, and indeed buys into the rhetoric that labour mobility and free trade are exactly the same thing - one would think that anybody with a legitimate list would be happy to put it forward to have their position broadcast to the public.

So let's see what kind of actual response just such a request from David Akin has received so far...

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