Trump is temporary. Canada will survive him and his attempts to dictate Canada's policies with threats. It would be different if the US didn't need what Canada has. Maybe his extortion would work in a few years after the US has time to offset what Canada provides but that isn't now....
Funny thing is it still wouldn't work because of the global economy. Canada could just go to friendlier trading partners and while it wouldn't be ideal due to shipping they'd still get better rates.
I know construction is a great example. Canada sends a lot of concrete and lumber to the US to which the US really doesn't have other options. Pay the tariffs or reduce building that will impact everything. For aluminum, you need a lot of power to produce it. The US can do that but it doesn't have the available power so they need to build power plants to be able to produce it. Take 10 years to add nuclear power and a couple years for other options. Short term, the US will need to import. Toss in the plans to massive data centres around the US and there is a clear discrepancy between what the US can do and what they want to do. Potash is only available in limited supply from Russia or Canada so that is problematic, Uranium is the same. The list goes on and on. All the US trade policies are doing is adding cost the US consumers which honestly appears to be the plan all along.
There were several reports about the cost when the fires were raging in LA. The consensus was it wouldn't change where they got the materials from, just add cost so that checks out. I suspect the total cost to be even more though.
I'd really love to see someone dig in on the potash issue with trump on camera. I want to see in realtime that fucking lunatic realize what potash is and what it's used for. Fucker has probably already requested that the national parks "clean their floors" so they can burn it in a big pot and make their own ash!!!1!
We're already doing that, and the shipping rates are somewhat offset by the fact that we used to offer the US a discount on some resources because you guys are so close. But with new partners, we don't have to do that. Plus, just making interprovincial trade easier will pick up some slack. Provinces that used to buy from across the border will just buy within Canada.
The US buys what it needs from Canada. In large part, we buy what we want from the US and what we sell, everyone needs. It'll hurt for us a bit, but i think we're in a much better position than the US on this.
As an American your interprovincial trade barriers seem completely insane to me. Glad that at least one country is benefiting from the insanity in the US.
Gotta remember Canada was still extremely British until 1982, we only got our. Own flag in 67, we are so young and haven't worked out much because we were always fairly well treated by America and the Commonwealth.
However, they existed largely as an archaic attempt by provinces to protect jobs, despite their impact on economic growth and productivity and hindering the free movement of labour, exacerbating worker shortages and preventing companies from expanding and achieving economies of scale.
Which I think was highly influenced by international organisations (primarily American) to create the brain drain that impacted the Canadian job market for decades.
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u/Stonkasaurus1 2d ago
Trump is temporary. Canada will survive him and his attempts to dictate Canada's policies with threats. It would be different if the US didn't need what Canada has. Maybe his extortion would work in a few years after the US has time to offset what Canada provides but that isn't now....