It's time for Mexico's Calderón to act against Canada

Alvin Starkman, M.A., LL.B. (July, 2009)

As much as president Felipe Calderón is doing to combat drug trafficking in Mexico, he’s doing little if anything to combat Canadian anti-Mexico sentiment. And the result has been taking an enormous toll on tourism to previously popular Mexican tourist destinations. Now is the most opportune time for Calderón to strike back.

It’s fine for the Canadian government to warn against travel to Mexico. In 2006 travel advisories were rampant against travel to the southern state of Oaxaca as a result of civil unrest there, despite the fact that no Canadian (or American) tourist was harmed or even threatened – videographer Bradley Will was not a tourist but rather a wannabe journalist electing to embed himself, video camera in hand, with the far left in the midst of conflict with government troops.

Just two short months ago Canada did it again, telling its citizens to not venture to Mexico because of the swine flu.

Mexico just sits back, while its economy continues to take hits to the head.

Just last month The Toronto Star’s Linda Diebel scared the heck out of Canadians through her series of articles about the Mexican drug trade. She began by tracing the problem to conflict and violence in British Columbia. So where was Calderón? Should he not have been issuing warnings to his people against venturing to war-ravaged British Coloumia?

And where has he been more recently, with new statistics regarding reported cases of swine flu indicating 20 per 100,000 Canadian residents, yet only about 7 per 100,000 of his own countrymen? Should he not be warning against travel to Canada? “Stay on the American side of Niagara Falls, folks, where reported swine flu cases are no more than they are here in Mexico.”

The most recent example of the Mexican government’s lackadaisical approach to tourism and Canada is how it has sat back and let the new visa requirements pass, without significant protest. At least the Czech Republic had the cajones to make a statement, through its actions.

Isn’t it time for Mexico to strike back against Canada, for all that the Canadian government and its journalists have done to adversely affect travel to Mexico? A plea to President Calderón: teach a lesson to Canadians who rely on tourism from Mexico for their livelihood. You’ve got the swine flu, the visa requirements, B.C.’s drug violence – and just take a look at the Greater Toronto Area pages of The Toronto Star newspaper, every day, if you want to see how dangerous it is in Toronto; teen killings, children disappearing, and the continual violence in the northwest corridor of Toronto known as Jane-Finch. Just one strong travel advisory should teach Canada a lesson, and convince its weak and impressionable Prime Minister Harper to think, independent of the U.S., before he acts.

Former Toronto resident Alvin Starkman now resides in Oaxaca, where he operates Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast (http://www.oaxacadream.com), boasting all the attributes of downtown Oaxaca hotels, with the quaintness and personal touch of country inn style accommodations. Alvin is also a writer and tour guide, taking couples and families to the ruins, craft villages and market towns in Oaxaca’s central valleys.