BOAZ_David said: "Humor aside.. I think we should go further and include Pacific Islands."

The Pacific Island nations are all basically failed states and would be nothing but a burden for Australia. We shouldn't be expected to subsume failed states just so they can hitch a ride into the First World.

saintfletcher said: "Never-the-less, it would be far easier for all tripartite nations in such an economic union to face the US in the eye and not be so overshadowed. Apart we seem so insignificant and vulnerable to be being ignored by larger international interests."

In the era of regional trading blocs, Australia geographical position couldn't be much worse. Australia and New Zealand are over 11,000 kilometers from any countries with which we have much affinity, and the Australia's misguided attempt at deeper engagement with East Asia beyond just trade has hit an impasse. As you rightly point out, Australia is being ignored by larger international interests as we have failed to build strategic multilateral coalitions necessary for economic survival. Australia's lack of supra-national membership means we have been effectively locked out of world markets.

If we are to overcome the tyranny of geography, we must adopt a truely global outlook. It would make sense for Australia to take advantage of its traditional relationships and expand ties with other industrialised Commonwealth countries like Canada. We should should be seeking associate status with the EU just as some Middle Eastern and South American countries already have. South America itself is a region that deserves more attention. Canberra is currently engaged in free trade agreement negotiations with Chile. Perhaps even a Mercosur-wide FTA could be a future option for Australia.

I know that the EU has a detailed list of criteria before a country can enter it's waiting list to join the EU.

They have to be modern economies with at least AA, preferably AAA rating from the world banks and have standards and infrastructures for secure democracy and basic human rights.

As to the problem of ships and aircraft going extinct in the next 10-20 years due to lack of fuel, we still have ethanol as I have pointed about and encouraged in other postings. They have developed some aviation ethanol, and are developing new varieties as there are various kinds of aviation fuel.

Canada is also in the forefront in developing fusion and thorium nuclear energy, and is seriously looking at building power stations with this new kind of nuclear power. We still don't know for sure how much safer they are to uranium or fission nuclear energy.

Australia is in the forefront of solar thermal power with the Lidel power station model: the cleanest of them all.

What we do know is that between the 3 countries, we should at least have power options to move these craft. We have no time to go all doom and gloom, the test of time is to get smart real fast.

Of course on that front, Canada is a good country to work with to see so many more options that they are so savvy at cutting edge technology.

Canada shares a continuous southern border with the world's largest economy. They have huge mineral and oil reserves. A booming commodities based economy. What can we do for them?

We have similar economies, and they have better access to the world's largest market. I'm a dual Canadian Australian citizen, as is my wife, so the links between the countries are huge.... but economically I just can't see much synergy.

What do they need from us? Not much. What do we need from them? Not much again. Wine for Maple Syrup based trade perhaps?

One of our biggest exports on the East Coast is now tourism. We still have barriers that effect easy passage between Australia and Canada. Canadians like to escape their winter, and Australia likes to escape ours. Canada has lots of snow, ours melt these days.

In an economic union, we can lower borders and travel barriers much like they do in the EU. Flights could be considered domestic. Of course quantine is a special need for Australia with fruit, farm residue, plants and timber things.

Australia has sugar cane, pineapples and bananas (usually). Canada can't grow sugar cane. We are in a better position to produce ethanol.

It is true that Canada and Australia share the largest coal and uranium reserves in the world. This is not a matter of how this complements each other, this is a matter of a cartel, much like OPEC. In terms of economy, we can control or manage the use, price and quality of coal to one standard.

Canada has more timber than Australia. They usually export this to the US.

The other point I was making was than in technology, especially in power production, Australia and Canada are on the cutting edge going different directions. From science to actually using new technology, we will have complimentary markets for each other. Canada is a bigger market, a cold land. Australia is a huge hot land, less people.

There are so many ways that we complement each other, putting aside grain produce, coal and uranium.