The Distance From America

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According to a recent CBC article our economic relationship with the United States is undergoing a substantial shift. There has been up to 30% reductions in a variety of means of travel to and from the US, approximately $5 billion in additional costs to American consumers as a direct result of  Trump's tariffs as well as a substantial shift in Canadian consumer's preferences for Canadian products over those made in America - all of which is making a noticeable impact on those firms selling their goods and services Canada. (https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-big-step-back-from-us-data-1.7637651)

Most importantly for our GDP, businesses are finally seeking contacts in other markets and making sales, which is now showing up in exports to countries other than the United States. The latter has been a featured recommendation in previous blogs along with an explanation of how to effect that transition.

This is the way it should be going forward. Travel may rebound eventually but trade will likely not return to the degree it has been in the past as new supply chains and buy and sell relationships are established. 

Many countries live next door to antagonistic neighbours and trade elsewhere - and do quite well by it.  As I have pointed out in previous postings, we have many opportunities to trade with other countries and have not taken advantage of those opportunities. The supporting infrastructure to do so has always been there, but Canadian businesses have simply defaulted to the line of least resistance. While understandable, the easy way out is no longer tenable.

It is time that Canadians (and Canadian businesses) woke up permanently from their long established complacency and supported local and national products as well as national and regional culture, rather than defaulting to the vortex of insipid, shallow American content.

We have always been different than Americans and all this turmoil has put a fine point on our differences. We have a rich and varied heritage and our convenient romance with all things American has run its course.

We should celebrate that has happened and stay the course to support our communities and domestic firms and continue to seek the world of opportunity beyond the insular and increasing fractured United States of America. 

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