Stephen Harper turned his tin ear to the sound of protesters at Montebello. He’d heard there were about a hundred. “It’s sad,” he smirked. This kind of nyah-nyah isn’t a sign of political astuteness. Astute politicians say, “I understand their concerns.” They’re avid listeners.

Then he turned his other tin ear to what he’d been told they were worried about: loss of Canadian sovereignty and “deep integration.” “Is the sovereignty of Canada going to fall apart if we standardize the jellybean?” he said of the issue, raised by a New Brunswick candy maker.

You know what? If they’re talking about integrating jellybean standards, it’s because there’s little else of our economies left to integrate. Canadian-owned corporations have been largely absorbed. The iconic names have gone or are going: Tim Hortons, Molson, Hudson’s Bay, Inco. The past year saw the “hollowing out” of head offices and accelerated job loss in manufacturing. It doesn’t mean advocates of deep integration won’t push for more: a common currency, an energy common market, bulk water exports. (Much laughter at that during the summit. But as Dale Bumpers said during Bill Clinton’s impeachment: “When they say it’s not about money, it’s about money. And when they say it’s not about sex, it’s about sex.” Well, if they say it’s not about water, it’s about water.)

The Toronto Star’s Jim Travers said it’s time to “debunk” the “myth of galloping integration.” That would be because what remains can be done at a slow trot. This isn’t about a secret conspiracy, it’s about fait accompli, a stately procession that included free trade in 1988, NAFTA in 1994 and the current, amorphous Security and Prosperity Partnership.

But there are less languid aspects to integration, including the deaths of three more Canadians in Afghanistan this week. That’s integration, too—with U.S. military and foreign policy. Why are we there? To placate Washington for not going into Iraq. How does it happen? Partly by sending our top brass down to training camps in Fort Hood, Tex., where they imbibe the values and lingo. A weird line at the end of a Globe story this week read: “Federal cabinet ministers have remained discreet, leaving it to military spokesmen from Valcartier to defend the mission.” Just as U.S. generals increasingly speak out to justify their country’s role in Iraq.

Most Canadians tend to resist this form of integration. Prof. Jack Granatstein was on TV yesterday, saying Canadians should give up the “myth” of peacekeeping. I think they see it not as a myth but as a rationale by which they can make sense of a national military. He said they must be told why putting troops in Afghanistan is in the national interest. I’d say they feel it’s the U.S. national interest that’s involved, not ours.

At their final press conference, the Montebello leaders treated the protesters’ concerns as paranoia. I think it’s less paranoia than regret, nostalgia, even mourning for what’s been lost. The pressure of integration with the dominant power—first France, then Britain, then the U.S.—has been present throughout our history. What I find amazing is that Canada continued to exist separately despite all the pressure. At this point, the signs of life tend to be cultural and attitudinal: You find them more in beer ads than in policies or the economy. But there are still a few institutional symptoms of Canada, like our health-care system and the refusal to invade Iraq.

It’s a good time to resist integration, as the protesters warned. The United States is in serious decline, facing challenges from Asia. It now does its military interventions disastrously; it doesn’t do health care at all. Even its high-speed Internet access is slow—behind France! Only Mexican President Felipe Calderón referred to any of this at the summit. Choose carefully who you harmonize your jellybeans with.

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Rick Salutin

Rick Salutin is a Canadian novelist, playwright and critic. He is a strong advocate of left wing causes and writes a regular column in the Toronto Star.