Canada has been shut out of a potentially historic Pacific free trade agreement involving the United States and seven other countries.

When asked in 2006 to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations that only recently got under way in Australia, the Harper government refused, largely to protect the Quebec and Ontario dairy industry from foreign competition. When Canada changed its mind earlier this year and asked to join, we were told it was too late, according to several sources.

Read the entire Globe and Mail article here.