Replacement "Super Minister" Well Versed in North American Integration
On September 5, 2024, Quebec Premier François Legault announced that Minister of Immigration, Francization and Integration Christine Fréchette, the MNA for the riding of Sanguinet, on Montreal's South Shore since 2022, would assume the post of "Super Minister" Pierre Fitzgibbon who resigned on September 3. She will now become the new "Super Minister" -- Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy; Minister Responsible for Regional Economic Development; Minister Responsible for the Metropolis and the Montréal Region. What is significant is how well versed she is in how to integrate Canada into the U.S. war economy and trample underfoot the national sovereignty of both Canada and Mexico and any country which defies the U.S. rules-based international order.[1]
Her 2005 paper entitled "Triumvirate: A North American Interparliamentary Innovation," makes the contribution she seeks to make amply clear. She advocated that "establishing a regional economic block such as NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] should require the constant attention of policy-makers; if only to address the many trade, security and development issues that arise." To achieve this, she advanced the idea of "a meeting of legislators from Canada, the United States and Mexico" where they would discuss issues related to four themes: the creation of North American trade corridors, immigration, the use of renewable energy and NAFTA's chapter on investments."[2]
The idea of a "meeting of legislators" never got off the ground but the integration did carry on with the summit in Waco, Texas of the U.S. and Mexican presidents and the Canadian prime minister, in March 2005. That first summit set the stage for the annual summits of the "three amigos," as part of the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America" to further integrate the economies of Canada and Mexico into the U.S. war economy.
With such a background, it is clear why Legault appointed her to head the two important ministries of Economy and Energy to carry on the integration of Quebec's economy and natural resources into the U.S. war economy.
Notes
1. The biography of the newly minted Minister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy shows how a point person of the state is groomed. Fréchette holds a Master's degree in international relations (Laval University, 1994) and a Bachelor's degree in business administration, with a major in economics and international trade (HEC, University of Montreal, 1992). Before being elected for the first time to the National Assembly on October 3, 2022, she was President and CEO of the Eastern Montreal Chamber of Commerce (2016-2021 and, before that, Director of external and institutional relations at Montréal International, which describes itself as "Greater Montréal's economic promotion agency" (2014-2016). From 2012 to 2014, under the PQ government of Premier Pauline Marois, she served as Assistant Chief of Staff for the office of the Minister of International Relations, La Francophonie and External Trade. From 2008 to 2012 she was U.S. politics analyst for Radio-Canada and Groupe TVA, radio stations 98.5 and 93.3 on the FM band. Between 2007 and 2012, she worked as coordinator, Chair in American Political and Economic Studies and Chair in Contemporary Mexican Studies, Université de Montréal (UdeM). Fréchette was also a board member of the North American Center for Transborder Studies, Arizona State University from 2006 to 2011, and of the Observatory of the Americas at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) between 2006 and 2007.
In 2006 she was a member of the electoral observation mission for the Organization of American States (OAS), sent to Honduras, Bolivia and Venezuela to oversee general and presidential elections in those countries. Between 2005 and 2008, she was also a board member of the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations (MCFR), which describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan, private organization.
This is the same organization that invites Canada's ministers of Foreign Affairs to speak to a select group of invited people to present "the government's vision." Last November, Canada's Foreign Affair Minister Mélanie Joly spoke there to defend Canada's support for the Zionist crimes committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Between 2004 and 2007, she was a board member of the Montreal Centre for International Studies – Cérium (UdeM). She also founded and served as Director of Triumvirate, North American Forum on Integration (NAFI), between 2002 and 2011.
2. "Triumvirate: A North American Interparliamentary Innovation," Christine Fréchette, Canadian Parliamentary Review, Autumn 2005.
(Assemblée nationale du Québec, Montréal International, Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, Canadian Parliamentary Review)
This article was published in
Volume 54
Numbers 8-9 - September 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54083.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca