John Duncan seems willing to break from the party and ask critical questions such as whether the MAI won't make fishing licences open to foreign residents. Overwhelmingly, though, the result of having Reform as Official Opposition is pressure on the government to negotiate as strong an agreement as possible to serve investors. Ted White, for example, has said the MAI would be great because it would protect the interests of people who buy property in Hawaii. Reform has generally argued that foreign investment is always beneficial. This report says Canada should be able to retain all of its laws over programs like health care and social programs, but does not address any of the arguments that the MAI will endanger Canadian sovereignty in these areas.
Reform explicitly rejects any attempt to get culture exempted from the treaty.
Reform also rejects including even minimal protections for workers in the text of the agreement, protections such as a ban on child labour. It proposes that environmental programs should be protected from the impact of the treaty, but has no suggestions on how this should be done. At the meetings of the parliamentary committee dealing with the MAI, the Reform representative, Charlie Penson, consistently intervened to have the MAI extended even beyond what the government is negotiating. I guess the concern I have is that the more reservations and exceptions countries take, the less need for this overall agreement to begin with. There are presently only 29 countries in the OECD involved in this.