From The Associated Press, as reported in today’s Washington Post, “Canadian Leader Faces Election Test“:

TORONTO, Oct. 12 — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is gambling that an opposition pushing an unpopular carbon tax will steer voters to the right in Tuesday’s election and bolster his hold on power…[snip]

The signature issue of Liberal leader Stéphane Dion is a proposal for a carbon tax on all fossil fuels except gasoline.

Conservatives say the “Green Shift” tax plan would drive up energy costs. Dion has said he would offset the higher energy prices by cutting income taxes, but he has had little success selling the plan.

OK, here’s how we see it. If the Tories win big, it’s because the voters recoiled against the carbon tax. If the Tories underperform and the Liberals record a surprisingly strong turnout, it’s because of…well, the carbon tax had nothing to do with it.

On a serious note, Prime Minister Harper has been a consistent, firm and persuasive advocate for the benefits of free trade. We appreciate his leadership.

From an editorial in today’s Washington Post, “Beyond Beef“:

THE COLLAPSE of the Doha Round of global tariff-reduction negotiations means that free trade is likely to advance, if at all, only through bilateral and regional agreements. These are not ideal, since they risk fragmenting the world into rival trading blocs, but they are better than no liberalization at all. And the economic case for the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement in particular, in which both Washington and Seoul agreed to reduce tariffs on a host of products, remains strong. The biggest such proposed pact since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, the deal would substantially increase American producers’ access to South Korea’s dynamic, $1.2 trillion economy.

And from an op-ed by Amity Shlaes, “Five Ways to Wreck an Economy“:

Giving in to protectionism. In Herbert Hoover’s time, Sen. Reed Smoot and Rep. W.C. Hawley proposed a tariff that was to raise effective duties by as much as half. More than a thousand economists signed an open letter warning that the duties would “raise the cost of living and injure the great majority of our citizens.”

But Hoover’s Republican Party didn’t much care. In its 1928 platform, the GOP had pledged to “reaffirm our belief in the protective tariff.” Ambivalent, Hoover signed the bill. An irate Canada and many other nations retaliated. At a time when the United States was begging for foreign markets, it lost them. The selfish signal discouraged an already unstable Europe.

Today, international trade claims a sizable share of our economy. Bilateral free-trade agreements with Colombia or Panama are good insurance — cheap steps that might prevent an expensive loss, that of the Western Hemisphere to Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.

Yet again, one party — the Democrats, this time — is cavalier. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is blocking passage of these bilateral agreements. And another ambivalent politician — Sen. Barack Obama — has sent mixed messages to Canada about just how much he wants to roll back the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Shlaes is author of “The Forgotten Man,” a good book on the mythology of FDR and the Great Depression.

During President Bush’s visit to Lincoln Electric Holding on Tuesday (see below), he noted that company president John Stropki wasn’t in attendance. From the President’s remarks:

I’m sorry John is not with us, he is in Colombia. Isn’t that interesting? He’s in Colombia trying to make sure that Lincoln Welding can sell more products down there. One of the issues that in a time of economic uncertainty — and these are uncertain times, no question about it — they’re uncertain because you’re paying high prices at the gas pump. They’re uncertain because you’re reading the newspapers about the housing issue. They’re uncertain times.

And during uncertain times, we ought to be playing to our strengths, and implementing good common-sense policy. Well, one of our strengths is right here in this company. You’re good at making a product that people want. People want it here in the United States of America, and when people are introduced to it around the world, they want it as well.

So John is down there trying to get new business. The problem is that our government policy relative to a country like Colombia is backwards.

And…

We want our products, like those manufactured right here in Euclid, Ohio, going into that Colombia market without a special tax on it.

And Congress needs to pass that trade bill. It would be good for workers right here in this plant and good for workers all across America. This government ought to be working to make it easier for you to sell products. Because if you sell a product, you got people working here in steady jobs. (Applause.)

WKYC-TV had a nice feature on Lincoln Electric earlier in the month.