Fo Po, Fo Sho

Article by Courtney Scoufis and Landon Willey, M&M TIPsters

We walked into the American Foreign Policy Tuesday morning to see two groups of TIPsters on opposite sides of the classroom; both avidly debating. The topic? To make a North American Union out of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. This Union would be similar to the European Union. The students were divided into two groups. Each group had three delegates from each country. In each group, there was conflict between delegates from other countries and between delegates from the same country. In order for something to get passed, two of the three countries had to agree to it in the group. The two groups were given three possible results to shoot for in the negotiations and were told to “try for the one which would benefit them the best.” The options given to them were: Mutual Cooperation, Supernational Government, or a North American State. As expected, each option had its own drawbacks and highlighte. A Mutual Cooperation would not be very formal or strict, which in itself sounds a little…sketchy. A Supernational Government would require America, Mexico, and Canada to recognize each other under the same government, but they still would remain separate countries. A North American State would be a virtual super country, resulting in a single country occupying the entire North American Continent.
Group one decided to name their alliance the North American Tri-National Alliance (NATA for short.) A delegate of Canada, Elena Woods, a rising freshman, said that her country wanted a this agreement so they could discuss pressing topics such as, “the economy, and matters of states such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” She said they are trying to stabilize their economy and get a larger position on the world stage. United States delegate Sam Gray, a rising tenth grader said that, “the United States wants to have Canada and Mexico as allies. Also so they would have some influence on what goes on in the other countries. Gray said that the countries could also help each other out economically and that Canada and the USA could help fight the Drug Cartel in Mexico.” Morgan Baskin, a delegate from Mexico, agreed with Gray in the fact that Mexico wanted Canada and the USA as allies.
The ending result for NATA was well thought out and was agreed to by all the countries. Woods admitted, “[Our] plans were basically the same.” The debate for group one resulted in having the central banking system in Montreal. The meeting locations would change between Washington DC, Mexico City, and Ottawa. The capitol would be in Chicago due to its location and the fact the Mexico has stability issues says that it couldn’t handle it. The government time would be a semi-presidency or as tenth grader Keaton McManamy put it, “democracy parliamentary congress.” All of the countries agreed to converting the Peso and Canadian Dollar to the United States Dollar over the time span of five years. This is to “make sure the Peso[and Canadian Dollar] are prepared to move on to the dollar,” said McManamy.
Group number two was the source of many interesting quotes. Canada and America had negotiated each other to an agreement supporting a Supernational Government, and Mexico was heatedly contesting the vote, supporting a North American State. In the midst of the debate, I managed to ask Josh Stallings, a Canadian representative, what he thought of the option the Mexican’s proposition, to which he replied, “It’s not gonna happen.”
In the end, Group number two decided upon a Supernational Government. And, through extensive diplomacy and negotiation, the Canadians and Americans managed to get the Mexicans on board. Daniel Sweat of the Mexicans stated, “Through graceful influencing from Canada, we’ve decided on option number two” which was the Supernational Government. Mexico stated that they agreed to the change, “In order for equal prosperity and development of all nations of North America [and] in order to insure a better future.”