This week, politicians, reporters and pundits say it's a make or break week for the North American Free Trade talks in Washington. They say if there isn't a deal really soon, upcoming elections in the United States and Mexico could complicate things dramatically.

Despite all the boosterism for a successfully renegotiated NAFTA that we are usually hearing in the media, there are still people who think it would be a good thing if the NAFTA talks fail. Today's guest on rabble radio is a well known opponent of NAFTA.

David Orchard is an author and farmer from Saskatchewan. He's a former member of the Progressive Conservatives, the party which first brought us into free trade with the U.S. in 1988. He actually ran for the PCs twice, but left the party after it merged with the Canadian Alliance to form the Conservative Party of Canada. He jumped over to the Liberals and ran in the 2008 federal election.

He's well known for his opposition to NAFTA, and the free trade deals that have come before it. Orchard is the author of the bestselling book The Fight for Canada: Four Centuries of Resistance to American Expansionism. He was also a co-founder of CCAFT (Citizens Concerned About Free Trade) in 1985, three years before the passage of the historic Canada US Free Trade Deal that started us on this free trade path that we're walking now.

Today's interview was done by Michael Welch of Winnipeg's Global Research News Hour. It's excerpted from the program called Free Trade Fantasies originally broadcast on Feb 2 of this year.

Thanks to Michael Welch for permission to post this as a rabble radio podcast. You can hear more of his programs here.

Image: Flickr – Jim Winstead

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