RALPH GOODALE
MP, Wascana

A few commentators in the great debate over potash have gone way over the top in depicting Saskatchewan as a “banana republic” and Premier Wall as a northern Hugo Chavez — all because the common sentiment in this province is to say “no” to the proposed hostile takeover of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan.

Critics on the ultra-right-wing seem to believe it’s the duty of governments simply to say “yes” to whatever takeovers come along.  Get out of the market’s way, they say.

But that’s the very mentality that led to the collapse of the U.S. housing market and several American banks not long ago, plunging the world into a recession of painful proportions.

It’s that same mentality that pushed for the deregulation of Canadian financial institutions and bank mergers back in the 1990s.  If taken, that advice could have led to dire consequences.

A takeover in the potash sector should not be trivialized by the Harper government as unimportant and “non-strategic.”

When one transaction could shift an entire Canadian industry into the hands of a single foreign buyer, when that industry is potash which is vital to food production worldwide for generations to come, when 53 per cent of the world’s reserves are in Saskatchewan and they could potentially be permanently controlled from outside Canada and when that transaction is the largest resource sell-off in history with nothing of significance left in Canadian hands thereafter — that makes it important and strategic beyond all doubt.

It’s telling that four former Saskatchewan Premiers (across party lines) oppose the proposed takeover, along with a number of business veterans like Roger Phillips (IPSCO and Alcan) and Dick Haskayne (for whom the business school at the University of Calgary is named).

On what’s known in the public domain today, this deal doesn’t pass the smell test.