I don't know about private health care and more greenhouse gases, but it doesn't seem to me that the Canadian power elite have their own distinct interests in Afghanistan and Haiti, to take just two examples, independent of their desire to support the US power elite and have access to the US market. In other words, Ottawa does what it does, neither because Canada is a neocolony of the USA nor because Canada is an imperialist country with its own independent interests that would exist with or without Washington's and that it must defend in Afghanistan, Haiti, etc. even if they were at odds with Washington's.
Ottawa does what it does in "peace-keeping" and things like that, because Canada's power elite think it's a small price to pay to keep Washington happy and maintain and expand access to the US market: "Canada's economic conditions have a significant impact on U.S. trade while Canadian-U.S. trade is so large a component of the Canadian economy that U.S. economic conditions have a direct impact on the Canadian economy. In 2005, 23 percent of all U.S. exports went to Canada, and 17 percent of all U.S. imports came from Canada. U.S.-Canadian trade is broad based, with Canada the destination for 25 percent of U.S. manufacturing and transportation exports and 19 percent of agricultural exports. Canada's exports represented 15 percent of U.S. manufacturing imports, 21 percent of agricultural imports, and 23 percent of energy and mineral imports. The United States, however, is the source and destination for the overwhelming majority of all Canadian imports and exports. . . . Canada is the largest exporter of energy to the United States. In 2005, Canadian exports were 24 percent of U.S. energy imports. Canada's 13 percent share of crude oil exports to the United States trailed only Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Canada was the largest source of refined fuel oil (15 percent) to the United States and dominated U.S. imports of natural gas and electricity.. . . .Despite the appreciation in the Canadian dollar since 2002, Canada's merchandise trade surplus with the United States has widened by $44.2 billion since then, with $32.9 billion of the rise in the trade surplus occurring in the energy area" (Paul Sundell and Mathew Shane, "Canada: A Macroeconomic Study of the United States' Most Important Trade Partner," Economic Research Service, p. 3, 21, <http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/WRS0602/>).
So, the most accurate way to look at Canada is to see it as a member of the multinational empire led by Washington, a member whose economy is particularly deeply and critically integrated with the USA's, especially because of its energy export to the US.
It would be great if Canada were run by a left-wing political movement like the one led by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, willing to make an energy alliance with Venezuela, Iran, Russia, and so on. Then, Canada could play a uniquely important role in global energy politics and help push the world toward a multipolar world order. But the NDP isn't it. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>