Donald Trump, he of the 34 Felony convictions has to all intents and purposes declared war on Canada. He wants to annex Canada as what he calls the 51st state and apparently firmly believes that a vast majority of Canadians would welcome such a takeover.
I believe that a vast majority of my fellow Canadians want to maintain our sovereignty and will fight tenaciously to keep Trump and America out of Canada. To be successful in defending Canada we need to substantially lessen our dependence on the U.S. market and improve our overall efficiency.
One of key actions we can take that will substantially improve our Gross Domestic Product (by about 4%) is removing barriers within Canada that hinder the movement of both labour and products between provinces.
Be it workers who find that their skills certifications in one province are not accepted in other provinces or manufactures of products used in one province but not accepted in another, all suffer a reduction in market size from such restriction.
These barriers have grown up because provincial politicians found them a useful means of gaining business or professional support within a province without consumer objections. In short they were a neat way of limiting competition that most consumers did not realize were having an adverse impact on national efficiency.
Such barriers have been in existence since our founding back in 1867. Even though in 2007 all the provinces and the federal government signed an agreement to eliminate then some 46 pages of exemptions were included in that document. Put bluntly, there was national free trade in name rather than in fact.
Trump鈥檚 aggressive actions against Canada raise the idea of eliminating these barriers to national free trade as a straight forward way of raising our domestic economic efficiency. But progress, even though were are facing a real trade war has been slower than molasses in January. And this must stop now.
The sooner we collectively act to eliminate all of these barriers the better. Provincial governments and the politicians running them have to find the courage to consider Canada鈥檚 welfare rather then their local welfare. And the interest groups that these barriers are protecting need to support Canada first rather than their limited provincial market. Failure to act just makes it easier for Trump to win
What is needed is an uprising of patriotic Canadians asking their provincial government representatives why they are delaying action. Why, to be blunt, exactly why are they helping Mr. Trump to take over our country?
Oh they will give all sorts of reasons why they are resisting eliminating these barriers and,. in many cases, I am sure they will enjoy local support to protect these barriers. Then we simply ask them, 鈥淚s your cause more important that the survival of our Country? I cannot imagine that they would want to go on record as putting these interests ahead of the nation鈥檚.
It is only by raising up the level of pressure on provincial politicians that we will finally have truly free trade within and across all of Canada.
So write or call your local member of your province鈥檚 legislature and strike a blow for Canada. Together we can save our country and make it stronger.
David Bond is a retired bank economist from 黑料社入口.
