There is a certain neatness to the parliamentary or Westminster system of government.   We oversimplify, but in the U.S. system no Member of Congress - House or Senate - who is opposed to the policies of the Administration need take a back seat to any other.  In the Westminster system, however, important issues have official opposition spokesmen.  Don Davies, a member of Canada's New Democratic Party, is the official opposition spokesman on trade, and he has been busy this week.
 
In Ottawa, negotiators from the 12 TPP countries are working their way toward a Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, and they have company.  There have been protesters outside the hotel they've been working in and lobbyists, well, around.  Yesterday, Mr. Davies was with the protesters.  In addition to what he told that group, he also taped a statement on TPP and transparency.  Today's quote is from that statement.   You can listen to the whole thing at the link, below.  For ease of reference,  we have also transcribed it.  Mr. Davies said:

We make no bones about it.  We are highlighting a TPP comment today because GBD's debate on TPP is now only a few days away.  And since we are on the subject, we'll mention four more things:

First, the statement above deals only with transparency, but Mr. Davies' comments to the protesters, Raging Grannies and others, were broader.  TPP, he said, "involves countries who are not democratic, that don't allow free elections, that ethnically targeted minorities," etc.  In short, he seems to know enough already to know that he is opposed.

Second, for an American there is always a touch of irony whenever a Canadian holds up something in the U.S. as a model.  Mr. Davies doing so on the issue of transparency and TPP is especially ironic, considering the range of concerns about transparency that have been expressed by U.S. politicians, including the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Third, on the other side of the globe, we noticed that both Japan's Shinzo Abe and Australia's Tony Abbott expressed the hope of seeing an early conclusion to the TPP negotiations during Prime Minister Abe's recent visit to Australia.   Indeed, it would be nice to think that there is some basis for Prime Minister Abbott's comment that "We are entitled to be optimistic to get an early and successful conclusion" to the TPP negotiations.

Fourth, here is a final irony.  At the moment it seems to be the opponents of TPP who are making the biggest case for more transparency.  Maybe it is a case that TPP's supporters should be making.  Judging from the results we get from Google, the lack of reliable, publicly available information about TPP isn't holding back TPP's critics at all.  It does, however, make answering them more difficult.