Oh Canada - Maybe!

Media Diplomacy...

Huh!!

With sincerest apologies to my American friends, I simply can't get over the sheer audacity (love that word) of some members of President Obama's administration. Where did he find her?

Anybody remember the interview Janet Napolitano had with our local media where she uttered the following wisdom;

"The fact of the matter is that Canada allows people into their country that we do not allow into ours," she said.

I guess she wasn't kidding. So what do the Americans want from us? Well they would like to take some 17 Chinese Uighurs terrorists who currently reside in Guantanamo Bay. Seems even U.S. authorities don't want them in the country. Well guess what, neither do we and our Prime Minister rightly turned down the request to take them.

Not our problem, this country has done enough by fighting in Afghanistan we don't need your Gitmo detainees. Another Canadian soldier died today in Afghanistan. He was just a child.

Some Interesting Numbers

Just a little update...I just heard on the news that President Obama stated that he did not want "any clauses that could trigger a trade war". There is hope yet..


When Canada and U.S. negotiated the free trade agreement in the late 80's most Canadians myself included thought this was a bad deal for Canada. I felt we'd given away too much of our natural resources such as oil and gas. The agreement was slanted in U.S. favour. Almost overnight a large portion of the manufacturing sector packed up and left town for places like Georgia or Ohio, wherever wages were cheap. That in itself decimated the Ontario economy but what the heck, we're Canadian, we sucked it up and took it on the chin.

Years later there came the softwood lumber dispute which took years to resolve and many millions of dollars in legal fees.

Now we seem to be back to square one where there is a trade war brewing which could devastate this country. It is up to President Obama to recognize that Canada is the U.S's largest trading partner and to solve this issue before it's too late.

I recognize that there are many Americans who have lost their jobs and their homes, but there are also many Canadians in the same boat. A lot of people have lived very well in North America in the last few years without ever thinking that it could end some day. If Americans think we are taking their jobs I'd like to remind them that their banking fiasco has robbed a lot of people the world over of their retirement savings. Greed is not a good thing and a "beggar your neighbour" philosophy will only make it worse.

Keeping in mind that the U.S. has about 200 million people and Canada around 34 million, I'd say we buy more American than Americans buy Canadian. Just for interest here are some trade figures for those Americans who think they are getting a bad deal.

Exported TO U.S. ---Imported FROM U.S.

2003 - 2,825 million - 2,163 million
2004 - 3,526 million - 3,430 million
2005 - 3,977 million - 4,047 million
2006 - 3,969 million - 4,084 million
2007 - 4,063 million - 4,326 million

I'd say that gives Canada a bit of a bargain chip...maybe it's time we stopped sucking it up by the 800 pound gorilla...

The 800 Pound Gorilla In The Room...

That would be the "Buy American" clause in the bail out package.

When President Obama way back when said he wanted to open NAFTA I guess he wasn't kidding. Of course at the time his campaign team said otherwise, nope they said, it's not on the agenda.

Reading the news from around the world lots of countries including Canada are in a panic over this clause that would affect all manufactured goods coming into the U.S.

I'm not an economist but from everything I read this can't be a good thing. I know Canada will have no problem selling it's oil, gas and steel to other countries like China or India but it will also mean less American goods in Canada if our government decides to retaliate. Darn, I may have to give up buying my wool from my favourite American suppliers...