Letter: Canadian complaints too little, too late

Monday, May 29, 2006 | 6:57 a.m.

Regarding the Sun's May 23 article, "Thirsty, eh? - The glass is half empty for Canadians fearful that we may export our crisis by importing their water":

A good article by Launce Rake pretty well summed up the fears of some nationalistic, left-leaning Canadians about the nefarious designs of the Yankees on our water supply. As usual, the activists will oppose anything that smacks of American interest coinciding with Canadian interests, especially if it involves some flavor of the day, such as water, national culture, geo-politics, beer or whatever.

Really, these Canadian activists seem to miss the point of the role of water in production of everything that people use, whether it's cars or cantelopes. Right now, Canadians are importing an immense amount of "embodied" water, hidden in all of the material that comes to us from south of the border. In turn, we're exporting to the U.S. (and to other countries) "giga-gallons" of water used to produce all of our manufactures, agricultural produce, and even in our mineral shipments!

Our activists can complain about future water issues, but Canadian water is already being "exported." Since we get so much embodied water from the U.S., Mexico and even Chile, such water "exports" are just a part of fair trade, eh?

John Newcomb, Victoria, British Columbia