I’m not the only one

Glad that Mexico has made it to round two of the WC? Of course.

But I was really referring to this bit from an article by a Financial Post reporter:

Even if Obrador wins the day, he is no Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan who’s flirted with Cuba’s Castro, threatened to kick out foreign resource companies and to divert oil exports away from the U.S.

Mr. Obrador has talked about renegotiating the North American free trade deal. But so did Canadian Liberal candidate Jean Chretien back in the 1993 election and yet he did absolutely nothing to make good on that “promise”.

Such gringo-bashing is favoured by self-styled populists in Mexico and Canada alike, but fail to resonate with a majority of the populace in either neighbouring country. This is not only because it’s dismissed as rhetoric, but it’s also increasingly appreciated that the NAFTA deal makes inordinate good sense for all three countries.

As for Mexico’s resource industry, there’s nothing to nationalize. Mexico’s federal government owns the monopoly oil company, PEMEX.

And no candidate is talking about privatization either.