What? You don’t get the Title? Which kind of Marxist are you? Certainly not Groucho.
You want to know something funny? Margaret Dumont thought it was a straight gig. Through 4 movies.
Anyway we owe the French-speaking part of Belgium a huge debt of gratitude for stopping the passage of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (hereafter known as CETA), a Trans-National Mega-Corp protectionist arrangement between Canada and the European Union. You may not have heard about it because Canada, eh? Moose, Hockey, and Cops in Red Uniforms, and those cheese eating Euros with their tiny cars that constantly break down and you have to buy an entirely new set of wrenches to monkey with (pro tip- slightly oversize your wrench and use shims to make up the difference, you can thank me later).
The land of people too polite to point out that it isn’t actually a State (Universal Health Care you know) but quite happy to pipeline asphalt and call it “Heavy” Oil because it costs more to refine into things useful other than as a driveway sealant and replacing it with icky Muslim branded stuff, and the multitudinous nations of IKEA (no, my shim trick won’t work because only the enclosed tool will and buy 2 units to replace the missing final screw, lovely meatballs and jam though), thought they had cooked a deal almost as bad (Canadian Bacon is Ham! Use your best Charlton Heston impersonation) as TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), and TiSA (Trade in Services Agreement) and much more likely to slip under the radar because it didn’t involve that big exceptional nation that still thinks the Earth is flat even though they live on the other side of it.
But they didn’t expect the Walloons (amongst our weaponry is fear, surprise, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope… look, I’ll come in again) saying-
Il y a tellement de fromage canadien.
Oui, et il goûte beaucoup mieux.
Cela va détruire totalement notre marché et nous et nos vaches sans travail.
You see, if you were Canadian you wouldn’t even need me to translate that for you.
It’s a bad deal for Canada too unless you are the owner of a Trans-National Mega-Corp or one of their Corporatist Neoliberal lackeys.
As I say it seemed on rails, just like its brethren, even ready to grease the skids of acceptance but hey, democracy works…
Sometimes…