WE GET SERIOUS FOR ONCE. WE WON’T MAKE IT A HABIT
In this edition, your wary correspondent ponders an uncertain future and what to do about it. Also did you ever wonder what fast-food outlets do with their recycling? Now we know.
This week: a 7-minute read
DESPERATE TIMES. DESPERATE MEASURES
We don’t usually dive too deeply into political waters with this newsletter. I piss off enough people on my Facebook page doing that. However, at press time there remains the imminent threat of a trade war with the U.S., and as unlikely as that would have sounded for much of our lifetimes, times have changed.
We now have a hostile neighbour led by a president with a reputation for examining the most sensible option and then doing the exact opposite. If he has chosen in this case (evidently the decision would have come down yesterday) to abrogate every trade treaty we’ve had going back to the Canada-U.S. Autopact in 1965, well, it’s gonna make one helluva mess.
His intent is simple enough, whatever red herrings he trots out. The president wants manufacturing jobs moved from Canada and elsewhere to the U.S. His plan is working. Already, Canadian food processors are making plans to move to the U.S. to avoid Donald Trump’s crippling tariffs. Will automakers and other manufacturers be far behind?
So consider this. Canadians need right now to adopt a wartime mindset and an all-hands-on-deck national effort to move our country to greater economic diversity and flexibility because to do nothing is to invite disaster. This is no time for the usual sniping between the right and left, between the West and Central Canada, between anglophones and francophones. We have one chance to get this right.
What I am proposing is a Canadianized version of the Marshall Plan. If you’re not up on your history, that’s the four-year effort, launched by the U.S. in 1948 to rebuild post-war Europe and thereby fend off communism. The Americans spent more than $12 billion in 1948 dollars to successfully pull it off.
The big difference, of course, is that we’d spend the money here. The federal government has already committed to compensating people who lose their jobs to Trump’s protectionism. I’m suggesting we spend what’s needed on a massive infrastructure and retooling program designed to wean us off our rather sizeable reliance on the U.S. and diversify the markets where Canada, a nation that lives and dies by trade, can maybe fill a need.
To that end:
- Initiate fast-track negotiations for Canada to join the European Union. We already have a free-trade agreement with them. We have the goods and materials they need. This could make sense.
- Eliminate all remaining trade barriers with our free-trade partners in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, particularly Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Australia.
- Canadian automakers once made cars exclusively for the Canadian market. That market is now twice the size of what it was then. Go back to that to keep our auto plants and their suppliers open, and get to selling our cars anywhere but the U.S.
- Build a pipeline from landlocked Alberta to Hudson Bay so that liquid natural gas and oil can be exported to Europe, at least when seasons allow. This may be a stop-gap measure but Germany has already shown great interest in helping to finance such a project, and a shortened season hasn’t hurt trade in the St. Lawrence Seaway.
- Revive the Energy East pipeline to Atlantic Canada and completely eliminate Canada’s need for buying foreign oil. Also, long-term, it would allow more oil and gas exports to Europe.
- Also revive the Northern pipeline from Alberta to Prince Rupert on the B.C. coast for shipping oil to Japan and South Korea. Improve port facilities for allowing the same for cars, trucks and other goods.
- Finally, eliminate all trade barriers among provinces.
Right now, we sell 80 percent of all the oil we produce to the U.S., but they buy it at a 24 percent discount off the world price. Trump told the World Economic Forum the U.S. does not need Canadian oil. OK, fine. We can get a better price elsewhere, especially since Russia is no longer supplying oil to the EU.
I recognize pipelines aren’t fun and don’t get built quickly these days, what with First Nations’ rights and environmental concerns. Give the First Nations a piece of the action, and the greens their due, but don’t let politics slow things down. Besides, pipelines remain safer than trains.
Does that sound crazy? You bet—and feel free to tell me that. But whichever party is in power after the next election, I believe they’d be prudent to consider at least some of what I’m suggesting.
HOW SWEDE IT IS
Sweden. Scandinavian nation. Population 10.5 million, or about the same as B.C. and Alberta together. Winter country. Yet a nation that exports its estimable culture to the Western world. Consider, for instance, the Swedes’ Viking heritage. Or Swedish meatballs. Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize. Volvo. Dynamite. Bjorn Borg. Swedish TV murder mysteries. ABBA. Minnesota. Ingrid Bergman. King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia. Star hockey players on every Canadian NHL team like Mikael Backlund, Markus Naslund, Jari Kurri, Anders Hedberg, Borje Salming, Daniel Alfredsson, and Mats Naslund. IKEA. Raoul Wallenberg. Greta Garbo. Stellan Skarsgard. Saab. Greta Thumberg. The movie I Am Curious Yellow. Ann-Margret, Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullman.
If Sweden can do it, we can, too.
NOT-SO-BEAUTIFUL
You ever notice how these days, fast food restaurants ask customers to sort their trash into three separate receptacles? Usually food waste, plastic waste and recyclables? Sometimes you even need to stop and consider which part of your lunch trash goes where.
Stop worrying.
The other day, my wife and I were in a Harvey’s restaurant in Leduc, Alberta. While there, we watched with a mixture of bemusement and astonishment as one of the staff began emptying all three receptables—and then poured all the contents into a single garbage bag. I am not making this up.
Hamburgers were good, though.
MORE ‘DEAR TERRY’ LETTERS
Re ‘Another Brush With Fame,’ Jan. 26. Hey, Terry, I loved your story on Pit Martin. I’m old enough to say I attended a few games during the 1961-62 season when he played for the Hamilton Red Wings (the same season they won the Memorial Cup). Many years later, my friend and hall
of fame broadcaster Jim Tatti gave me a copy of the Wings’ team photo that included Pit Martin and Paul Henderson. That’s the first pic above. I met Paul a number of years later at a sports hall of fame dinner in Hamilton. That’s the other pic: Jim, Paul and me. Jim Slomka, Burlington, Ontario
Hey, Dad. I still tell people about the time we met Grant Fuhr in an elevator at West Edmonton Mall. I was watching you strike up a conversation with him, completely oblivious to who this person was. It wasn’t until after you two shook hands and parted ways that you told me who he was. That was my first non-encounter with an NHL legend. Jamie McConnell, Waterloo, Ontario
Terry, your story about Pit Martin reminded me of the time I accompanied my dad to the home of one of his co-workers to pick up something or other. When we walked in, there on the sofa was Garry Unger, at the time with Detroit. He was such a nice guy, and we talked about hockey the whole time. Well, he had to do all the talking, I was a bit awestruck. I’ve been a Red Wings’ fan ever since. Gord Dobie, Edmonton, Alberta
Re ‘First Brush With Fame,’ Jan. 19. Hi Terry. I remember the only hockey banquet I ever attended in our hometown of Lambeth, Ontario. The guest speaker was Dave Keon. Or maybe it was Dickie Duff. What made that event super special though was the big jar of jellybeans I won by guessing how many there were: 753 jellybeans. To this day, food beats sports. Doug McKinnon, Mississauga, Ontario
If you want to drop me a note (and risk me publishing it here), just reply to this email or, if you prefer send it to mysundayreader@gmail.com.
NO SHAMELESS PLUG
We have shamelessly prattled on about our shameless plugs for several weeks in a row now, so we’re gonna take a break this week. We do invite you to visit terrymcconnell.com or lethbridgetale.com to see if anything catches your fancy.
See ya next week. / T.
