Leafsfan74
Registered User
- Jul 2, 2018
- 5,469
- 5,846
The problem was that we tried to distance ourselves from the U.S, our methods Ill-advised in my opinion. Not that we should not have global trade, it is critical to Canadas success, but we needed to be honest about the natural economic shift that would occur when we had a dumbed down system of "off-shore, import make money via currency arbitrage", with an unreliable partner at that. Britain tried the same and they are nothing but a service economy now that is in real trouble suffering from the same innovation deficit that we do. Centralized systems are known for this outcome.
We became very close to China, to such a degree that in the 2000s when I was in my MBA, one prof after another was driving the idea that China and China alone was the future. All corporations must look to China, all trade must be with China, no other nation mattered, even our own. We read books glorifying the Chinese economy, etc. This was going to be where Canada was going to become wealthy (at least some corporations and CEOs). It was always going to be tenuous barring a massive political shift in China, which they seemed to pursue for a short duration. As history has shown in that region, with Mother Russia still very influential; this was but a fleeting moment in time.
If you questioned this precarious future for Canada taking this reliance on China you'd be an outlier and I can tell you that reading about how much Chinas economy was expanding and eating up Western industries was very concerning to me at the time. I expressed it only in hushed whispers among classmates because to say it out loud you might be considered anti-capitalist, something I definitely am not.
There is some real irony in that statement of course considering the system I was whispering about. I was always a free market promoter but that was taking into account trade with the E.U, the U.S, Japan etc. This was an entirely new ballgame, one a small country like Canada would lose if we lost our position in the world through this pursuit. We even had the promotion of a Free Trade with China at one juncture which in my opinion would have been quite damaging to our national interests, but I digress.
Well, it turns out, China doesn't like to consume foreign made products as much as our American neighbours do (not that we innovate to the level we should, much to my dismay as I have been critical of this for years) nor do they like to invest in jobs in Canada as the U.S does or, conveniently located.
When NAFTA was signed, we were sitting beside the greatest consumer economy on earth, the Cold War was won and instead of Canada pushing for stronger ties with the U.S and emulating, say, their system of civil liberties, manufacturing and innovation, government accountability and local politicians answering questions of constituents as they do religiously in the U.S, we believed we could remain the same Old Country system in a global economy.
We happily and erroneously got on board with many post-Cold War U.S economists who force fed the concept of embracing China as a normalized trading partner, entry into the W.T.O (the single biggest decision that turned the global economic ties of the West). There was little longitudinal assessment of what this would mean for Canadas position and relationship with America.
In my opinion, Canada should have at that time been pushing hard for the U.S to strengthen the NAFTA as a global trading bloc and making ourselves more indispensable as say, Taiwan did, or similar to the way that the E.U has. That's near impossible now for a number of reasons. Canadian "experts" were anything but experts.
How Canada is able to maintain its standard of living for its citizens when our spending, especially locally; does not meet the needs of its citizens and the economic potential of its talents is beyond my pay grade. I have plenty of ideas but I am just one man.
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