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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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This week no less than three representative public opinion polls in Canada have shown among other things the positive attitude of the local population toward its southern neighbor. On the other side they have shown that even if the Canadians are deeply linked economically and emotionally with their stronger neighbor, there are limits for every love affair.

According to the first poll, 65% of the Canadians think that their social values differ from those in the USA and nearly 90% like to maintain the current state of difference between the two countries. Nevertheless the majority of Canadians favor closer economic ties but only under condition that this won't make Canada become more Americanized, whatever it means.

The second poll says that 66% of the Canadians favor fostering economic integration with the USA. Gone away the fears from the past that the American investments will reduce the economic sovereignty of Canada. Now 50% see such investments as improving their standard of living. And what is even more remarkable is that 87% of Canadians believe their country needs to look beyond the borders to survive economically. In the same time less than 30% express fears over the American influence in Canadian cultural life.

In the third poll 75% approve the free trade with the United States under NAFTA agreements, up from 30% in 1992. The same level of approval is given to the idea of further trade liberalization between the two countries. And that in spite of the fact that the huge majority of Canadians don't want to see the country becoming like their southern neighbor.

The same week the governor of Bank of Canada Mr. David Dodge told the House finance committee that closer economic integration between Canada and the USA could also pave the way for a common market and common currency*.

To summarize the above-mentioned results: 1. Canadians want further economic integration with the United States. 2. They don't want to have their country look like America.

One of the truths of the globalization is that even the closest economic ties like those existing between the US and Canada aren't close enough to meet the need for further integration. In this respect "no close is too close" and it's good that the Canadian public opinion wants to go further and deepen this integration. But what to do if this integration requires adopting the US dollar, the US custom rules and the US federal standards of any kind? The strongest painkiller for the wounded national feelings is the time but do we have enough time to wait until the Canadian society decides to make the next radical step forward?

One often mentioned example of a profound difference between the two sides of the border is the medical system. This system in its Canadian version can't block the further integration because it's managed by the provinces, not by the federal authority in Ottawa. It will continue to exist as such even if the federal government decides to take an indefinite unpaid leave. The language laws in Quebec also won't be a major problem as they aren't a problem for the American investments already in place. So the remaining problems in Canada standing in the way of the integration are essentially in the field of public sentiments.

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* - Just another term designed to hide the substance, which is that Canada will have to adopt the US dollar.

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