I'm sending Trump a Thank You card.

Mad Mike

Mad Mike

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I'm going to say thank-you to Trump for putting on his Tariff Clown Show.

I never thought it would stick -- still don't - there's just too much interlocked between the 3 economies that would take years to sort. I suspect Trump knew that, but the 'Art of the Deal' doesn't require evaluating outcomes until it's time to seal the deal. My feeling is Trump wants Canada and Greenland to become American States and he feels some kind of economic battle is less grizzly than the one Putin and Zelenski are fighting.

The reasons I'm thinking of sending him a thank-you card are as follows:

He's galvanized Canadians. The threat of tariffs united a broad range of Canadians across political lines. Widespread public and political support for standing up to the Trump administration by provincial leaders, industry leaders, labour, and citizens. Lands north of the 49th parallel will now NOT be the 51st state. "We stand on guard for thee" is back.​

Trump educated the average Canadian on some of our nation's structural weaknesses. Over the course of 3 weeks, he got the media and the public learning and talking about the reliance we have on the US for trade. Then he got us to understand structural weaknesses we have created in workforce productivity, regulatory climate, inter-provincial trade, and Federal leadership (well maybe I'll thank JT for the last one).​

My hope is Canadians don't take a big sigh and then slide back under the cozy covers of status-quo. I hope Trump lit the fuse that blows the doors open for international and inter-provincial trade, exploration, and resource development, LNG terminals, shipping ports, and pipelines that let us unlock our resources, reduce domestic costs, and reduce our dependency on trade with the USA. And make or buy more Canadian-made things.

 
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It's kinda hilarious though...the 1.3B plan Trudeau talked about, was already approved back in December, it was nothing new.

The "Czar" thing might be new but that's just additional bureaucrats wasting taxpayer money most likely. The wakeup call is good... but we're also quick to forget (on both sides of the border)
 
I suspect the "fentanyl czar" are words attached to an existing minister's portfolio so that they can point to that person and say "That's the fentanyl czar", without requiring them to actually do anything.

And I agree with the points Mad Mike made: We need to diversify our economy away from reliance on the USA, including more self-reliance where possible, and inter-provincial trade barriers need to go away where possible.

Getting rid of those inter-provincial trade barriers might not be as simple as it first appears. For example: My career up until retirement was professional engineering. The engineering licensing boards are provincial responsibility and are governed under the regulations of each province. I was licensed to practice in Ontario. If I wanted to offer services outside Ontario, I would have to get (and pay for, and insure, and pay for that) a license in each other province. There is some provision for inter-provincial licensing, but it's still a bunch of red tape to get through to get a temporary license, and even more red tape to get an actual permanent license. For certain fields of engineering (notably civil and structural) the regulations of each province that an engineer has to be familiar with are different. Each province has their own building code, their own electrical code, their own health and safety regulations, etc., many of which are "based on" the national building code or the national electrical code, but with all sorts of local fine-tuning. And there are some real world differences. Some parts of the country have snow loads. Others have earthquake loads. If you've never dealt with designing buildings for earthquake before, it's a whole bunch of additional considerations over and above run-of-the-mill building code. So, as far as this regional licensing goes, it's a pain in the tail but I understand why it came to be like this.

Banning British Columbia wine from being sold in Ontario is just stupid, and that sort of thing needs to go away.
 
I had no idea there were any restrictions on what goods could be sent across provincial borders. Makes no sense to me, especially since there are no checkpoints at those borders. But how is that even enforced? I've been getting shipments of whisky from Nova Scotia without issue, yet apparently Ontarians can't import liquor from outside Ontario.
 
Protectionism and expensive bureaucracies exists in professional licensing, protected goods (alcohol, tobacco, dairy, poultry), protectionist product labelling, regional procurement restrictions, energy distribution restrictions, provincial supplier subsidies, duplicated regulator organizations… there is lots.

The duplication of bureaucracies adds immense costs that get taxpayer or consumer funded. Protectionist practices remove competitor forces which also get paid for by consumers.
 
In addition to what Mad Mike said. I also see it as wake up call to improve our borders in both directions and also more spending for our military and defense. Unfortunately without Trump's threats , I feel the status quo would of prevailed. Even with a new leader and party in place.
Hopefully all this Tariff nonsense makes Canada stronger, more competitive, united and the best Country in the world to live, work, raise a family etc.
 
Relax said:
I had no idea there were any restrictions on what goods could be sent across provincial borders. Makes no sense to me, especially since there are no checkpoints at those borders. But how is that even enforced? I've been getting shipments of whisky from Nova Scotia without issue, yet apparently Ontarians can't import liquor from outside Ontario.
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Yeah it's kinda stupid, buying beer in Que and bringing it into Ont is somehow a problem. Use to do this when visiting my buddy in Ottawa. Felt like we were doing something illegal. But they had more selection and better prices.
 
sburns said:
Yeah it's kinda stupid, buying beer in Que and bringing it into Ont is somehow a problem. Use to do this when visiting my buddy in Ottawa. Felt like we were doing something illegal. But they had more selection and better prices.
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Costco run to Gatineau for a 60 pack used to make economic sense but, it’s not worth the petro for only a beer run.

I think the politicos are so busy over the years spending money on programs, there was never a reason to look at interprovincial trade barriers. Any violations were overlooked as it wasn’t a massive issue. If it got caught somehow, good stuff but for the most part, they only wanted to prevent businesses from selling to out of province customers.
 
Relax said:
But how would anyone know? Sometimes I don't even realize when I've crossed a provincial border.
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I think you only really come up against it when looking to purchase something from a company and have it shipped and they respond with an apology. The folks with their saddlebags or trunk load driving over and back aren’t on the radar. If you rented a U-Haul and brought stuff back for your local pub, it might raise an eyebrow. I’m not sure If the economics make sense to do this any longer 🤷‍♂️.

It used to be a thing pre Covid and before. My family in Ottawa used to do it all the time. Now, not so much but, not because of any concerns with the law.
 
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Brian P said:
It's a shame that a good portion of the increase in defense spending, both here and in the EU, will have to go towards protecting ourselves from who we thought was an ally.
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Yup, next year the PM (whoever that is) needs to get up on their soap box and cheekily mention how much fentanyl and illegal aliens were stopped and openly brag about how many guns and cocaine they stopped from entering Canada as a result of this effort.
 
Brian P said:
I suspect the "fentanyl czar" are words attached to an existing minister's portfolio so that they can point to that person and say "That's the fentanyl czar", without requiring them to actually do anything.
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As expected, our moron in charge used this as an opportunity to hire another highly paid loser. Former rcmp deputy commisioner has been hired as the fentanyl czar. I assume the contract ensures a ton of our money is burned on this guy.

www.ctvnews.ca

Former Mountie Kevin Brosseau named fentanyl czar in reply to Trump's tariff threats

The Liberal government has named Kevin Brosseau, a former senior Mountie, to be the federal point person on fighting the spread of deadly fentanyl.
www.ctvnews.ca www.ctvnews.ca
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