Canadian news media are a source for truth! Reporting on the Canadian-U.S. evaporated trade deal in the Toronto Star

The United Kingdom‘s PM Keir Starmer was first to strike a trade deal with Donald Trump, writes Daniel Tisch, only to discover it wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. 

Maine Writer-  In my opinion everything Donald Trump signs is written in "invisible ink".  His "deals" are always evaporating.

Canadian PM Mark Carney should pay attention.

Don't feed the crocodiles! An echo article published in The Toronto Star, by Daniel Tisch, president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

Just over a year ago, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was quite chuffed- a little too sure of himself.  But, guess what❓ His delight was short lived.

After Donald Trump announced punishing tariffs on goods from America’s major trading partners, Starmer became the first to strike a deal with Trump. In exchange for substantial new access to the U.K. market for American agricultural exports, Trump agreed to lower tariffs on British goods to 10 per cent, down from 25 per cent.

At the time, some Canadian commentators praised Starmer’s decisiveness in protecting the U.K. economy. 

In contrast, Canada’s approach — a blend of retaliation and protracted negotiation — had achieved nothing but pain for our most targeted industries.

A year later, Canada still has no deal with Trump. Indeed, the U.S. refusal to extend the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) to 2042, has left the deal in place but in the purgatory of annual renewals, creating prolonged uncertainty when business craves just the opposite.

With hindsight, however, Starmer’s gambit (calculated risk) looks even worse.

Peace with Trump didn’t last.  Regardless of the deal, typical of Trump, he still wields his tariff threats whenever the U.K. displeases him, which is often, such as when it opposed the U.S. annexation of Greenland and military action in Iran, and imposed a digital services tax on American tech giants. But "HELL-O❓" - what about the U.S.-U.K. trade deal❓ It “can always be changed,” Trump declared.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Starmer — now on his way out of office — would have done well to heed Winston Churchill’s warning that appeasing an aggressor is like feeding a crocodile, hoping it will eat you last.  (In other words, Donald Trump lies about everything❗)😟😞🤥

For Canadian leaders and trade negotiators, there are other lessons:

Understand the speed limit: With Trump, the fastest deal is likely the worst deal. If anything, high inflation, weak job numbers and his growing unpopularity ahead of November’s midterm elections may weaken his hand further. This may create an opportunity for a deal to mitigate Trump’s sectoral tariffs. Until then, governments will need to continue short-term supports for our affected industries.

Use pencils, not sharpies: Negotiators sometimes refer to Trump’s preferred trade agreements as “sharpie deals”: they’re short documents, signed for the cameras, lacking detail, enforcement provisions or dispute resolution mechanisms — which means they’re easily revoked, changed or ignored. “Pencil deals,” in contrast, are like CUSMA (Canada United States Mexico Agreement) : finely crafted, and far more enforceable and resistant to unilateral change. When negotiating with a partner whose word cannot be trusted, that is what Canada needs.

Make no unilateral concessions:

Last year, Prime Minister Mark Carney rescinded Canada’s digital services tax as a goodwill gesture — and got nothing in return. Now, the U.S. ambassador is pressing Canadian provinces to put U.S. liquor back on store shelves — another unilateral concession. When concessions are one-way, Canada’s answer must be ‘no way.’

Open multiple fronts:  Recently, we have heard a rising chorus of U.S. business and bipartisan political leaders in favor of CUSMA. In past trade negotiations, Canadians have enlisted powerful allies by leveraging their abundant relationships across America. Progress will not come from Canadians persuading Americans; it will come from Americans persuading Americans. 

Negotiate from a position of strength:  With slow productivity growth and an overreliance on one market, Canada was woefully unprepared for this trade war. In the last 18 months, provincial and federal leaders have worked to lower business costs, improve our investment climate, reduce barriers to trade within Canada, and build infrastructure to stimulate the economy and diversify our global trading relationships. The early results are encouraging: outbound trade with other markets is growing, as is inbound investment.

The unavoidable reality is that even as Canada becomes a stronger, more diversified trading nation, we will always need the U.S.

It’s equally true, however, that the U.S. needs Canada: for the energy that fuels their cars and heats their homes; the fertilizer that grows their crops; the lumber to build their houses; and the metals and minerals essential to their defense.

Canadians are also Americans’ biggest customers, with some eight million U.S. jobs relying directly or indirectly on trade and investment with Canada.

That means Canada can neither give in nor give up.

As Trump grows weaker — and likely more volatile — our negotiators must be both patient and persistent. 

Moreover, with evidence about how Trump routinely breaks his own agreements, our businesses must continue to invest in productivity and diversify their trade and supply chains.

We must remember that the Canada-U.S. relationship will long outlast Trump.

Most Americans want stable, secure trade with Canada. That makes this a relationship worth preserving.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans causing Americans to move to beautiful Canada

God bless Americans❗ Thank you Canadians🍁. 
Echo opinion letters published in The Globe and Mail, , in  Ontario Canada. 

Re “Don’t lose sight of the Americans trapped in the Donald Trump nightmare” (Opinion, Jan. 24): My wife (80) and I (81) were born in the United States and have experienced 14 and 15 presidencies respectively. Some were good, others, not so much. However, we have now clearly reached a historic low. 

Therefore, we want to express our profound apologies to our Canadian neighbors. We love our country, but have never been so ashamed of the behavior engendered by Donald Trump and his cult enablers. There seems little we can do to change the brutish, bullying, immoral behavior of the U.S. government led by Mr. Trump other than to protest and hold our breath until the midterm elections in November.

In the meantime, we will visit Canada frequently (if you’ll have us), and spend as much as we can afford. We also encourage our Canadian friends to boycott all things U.S. and hold off visiting us until the stench clears. And kudos to Prime Minister Mark Carney for standing up to the neighborhood bully.

From Bill and Jane Gehring Upstate New York

We in Vermont are requesting that Canada seriously consider buying our state. It is a good deal. For only $647,464, a dollar for each of our citizens, Vermont would become the 11th province of Canada.

In return, Canadians would get unfettered access to great skiing, hiking and boating, a thriving maple syrup industry, Bernie Sanders as an addition to your Parliament, and a population within the only state to defeat Donald Trump in the 2024, Republican presidential primaries.

And, you might ask, what’s in it for Vermonters? That would be the freedom from tyranny and oppression, and a return to the rule of law that no longer exists here.

Oh, Canada❗ Please give this consideration.🙏

From William Gay in Montpelier, Vermont

Canada opinion echo - In Trump's face about Iran

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2019/05/22/canada-should-reopen-its-embassy-in-iran.html

Canada should reopen its embassy in IranCanada has zero interest in war with Iran, echo opinion, May 21, 2019 in The Star, published in Toronto.

Indeed Canada has no interest in a U.S.-led war with Iran. Moreover, Canada can take the following steps to begin a rapprochement with Iran and act as a peace-broker.

First, Canada can reopen the embassy in Iran that Stephen Harper closed. It’s exactly at times like this when Canada needs an embassy in Iran to help mediate between nations on the brink of war.

Second, Canada should join Iran in calling for an immediate end to the relentless bombing of Yemen and end its $15-billion arms arrangement with Saudi Arabia. 

Third, Canada should engage in commerce with Iran in contrast to the policy of economic strangulation favoured by the U.S. Donald Trump administration, which does not work and is only causing unnecessary suffering. 

Canada can prevent war by partnering with Iran to advance peace.

Ali Manji, Thornhill, Ontario

MaineWriter- In other words, the echo opinion describes the incompetent Donald Trump, a failure at international diplomacy. Canada can say "in your face, tRump!"

Canadian international border crossings

By Brian Dickerson published in the Detroit Free Press

DETROIT- The U.S.- Canadian boundary was scarcely a border at all, with most official checkpoints left unguarded at night and residents of both countries coming and going as casually as they would cross county lines or state boundaries.

Border monument in Minnesota's Boundary Waters. (Photo: Sara Fox)

At 3,987 miles, the border between the lower United States and Canada is the third-longest international boundary in the world, more than twice as long as the border between the United States and Mexico, and considerably harder to secure.

Author/adventurer Porter Fox chronicles the three years he spent exploring the northern border, including the 721 miles that divide Michigan and Ontario, in his 2018 book, "Northland."

This month, not long after Donald Trump declared a national emergency on the shorter, less porous southern border. Free Press Editorial Page Editor Brian Dickerson asked Fox what he learned on his 4,000-mile odyssey:

In the beginning, the border was not even a line. Settlers from many nations, including Native Americans, lived on both sides of the line that we know today. It was a porous border, in part, because many businesses like the timber and fishing trades also straddled that line.

After the American revolution, the British did not go back to England. Most of them went to British Canada and retained ownership of their businesses to the south. The line was so open, and busy, in America’s early days, that it was almost impossible to collect tariffs on goods coming into the U.S.

Even today, there are many parts of the border where you can simply walk across. I know, because I did it many times while researching Northland.

There is a lot of confusion in some places along the border about where our country ends and where Canada begins. Are there any ongoing, unresolved boundary disputes between the two countries?
A: There are quite a few. 

The sovereignty of nearby Machias Seal Island off the coast of Maine has been disputed for more than 200 years.The situation wasn’t a problem until the price of lobster spiked in 2015 and Nova Scotia fishermen started setting traps there. Death threats, cut lines, and close calls between American and Canadian fishermen followed. The dispute was never resolved, nor were several others in “gray zones” along the line.

Fishermen at Dixon Entrance, between Alaska and British Columbia, have been battling for fishing rights for years. U.S. and Canadian companies began vying for oil-drilling rights in the Beaufort Sea, near the Arctic Ocean, One of the most public feuds along the northern border is playing out in the Northwest Passage — the fabled water route to China that only recently thawed enough to allow boats through — where American ships are claiming navigational rights on water Canadians say is theirs.

Q: Michiganders who travel to Canada regularly know the journey has become more complicated and time-consuming since 9/11. How have those new impediments changed the experience and attitudes of people in the border communities you visited?

A: It has changed things a lot, mostly north of the border.

For many years, Canadians have been driving into America for jobs or to pick up things like toilet paper that are a couple of bucks cheaper in the States. You notice lots of businesses like Mailboxes Etc. on the American side of the line. Most of the P.O. boxes there are owned by Canadians, so they can order things from Amazon without paying a heavy tax.

Doctors, clergy, schoolteachers and bartenders often live in Canada and drive south over the border, and vice versa, to do their work.

Increased (and disorganized) security makes it impossible to predict whether there will be a five-minute or five-hour wait at the border. This has turned a lot of Canadians I spoke with against the United States, understandably feeling that the U.S. simply doesn’t care what they think or how this affects them. 

Customs and Border Protection acts with impunity and little oversight, and is free to racially profile or indefinitely detain travelers and basically do whatever they want.

In terms of business, it has been devastating to border regions. One study estimates that businesses along the American side of the border lose $30 billion a year due to unpredictable border crossing bureaucracy.

The auto industry is a good example. Vehicles produced in North America crisscross the border up to seven times before they are completed, creating thousands of customs transactions for each truckload. Every delay can cost up to $800 per vehicle. A study by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce found that a four-hour delay at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor can cost the Ontario economy up to $7 million in lost production.

Q: You write of canoe trips in which you crossed the border dozens of times in a single day without encountering border patrol agents from either country. But officials on both sides assured you that your movements were being monitored 24/7 by drones, satellites, sensors, etc.

Are you convinced it’s no longer possible to cross the border between manned checkpoints without one or both governments taking note?

A: No, I think that border patrol and communities exaggerate the effectiveness of surveillance — to make themselves sleep better at night and deter would-be smugglers. .

The Department of Homeland Security has essentially transposed its Mexico border policy to the U.S-Canada border, increasing the number of agents in the north by 500 percent and installing some of the same sensors, security cameras, military-grade radar and drones used on the U.S.-Mexico line.

The increased security has resulted in an uptick in arrests, but it has hardly locked the northern border down, because it focuses on border checkpoints, and not the vast back country between them.

The northern border is long, rugged, underfunded and suffers from “constricted domain awareness.” A 2010 Congressional Research Service report put a number to that “awareness,” stating that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) maintained “operational control” over just 69 miles of the northern border. Even with a new DHS “Northern Border strategy” rolling out, it doesn’t look like much is going to change.

Q: Few of the residents you encountered seem particularly worried about border security; even the militia leader you interviewed in Idaho didn’t talk much about illegal immigration.

Journalists who cover the Mexican border convey the same sense that the closer people live to the boundary, the less threatened they feel by those on the other side. You seem to have had the same experience: Even the militia leader you interviewed in Idaho didn’t seem worried about illegal immigration. Do you think there’s a commonality of experience that transcends the obvious differences between the two border communities?

A: Absolutely. Probably the greatest commonality is the understanding that politicians and the media have no idea what it is actually like to live on the border.

Border patrol on both sides of the line operates with so little oversight that it can basically do whatever it wants within 100 miles of the line. They have complete and total authority in that region, and they can make life more difficult for citizens living there than for illegals trying to cross.

Travel Writer Stephanie Elizondo compares the Rio Grande Valley to the U.S-Canada border where it passes through the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in upstate New York. Her book is a disturbing examination of how much of the U.S. came to be, and how the original residents of this borderland continue to be oppressed.

Q: The U.S.-Canada border divides 12 Indian reservations, and three times as many indigenous tribal populations. Some still refuse to officially recognize the border, although most grudgingly obey the immigration laws ordained by Ottawa and Washington. Have any of those tribes — or any other border communities you encountered, for that matter —– been able to maintain their identity as a single community?

A: They are trying, in spite of constant harassment by U.S. and Canadian officials.

Both governments have illegally cut tribes off from their families, fishing and hunting grounds and rightful land, either by physically intercepting them or requiring paperwork that, for a member of a sovereign nation, is very difficult to get. (All of which violates the Jay Treaty, which guarantees unencumbered passage, among other federal laws.)

At the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation, families are forced to cross three bridges over the St. Lawrence River, over and back — waiting in hour-plus border-check lines at two stations in Ontario and New York — before dropping their children off at school on Cornwall Island. When parents are late to school and skip the second bridge, their cars are impounded and they are arrested for aiding and abetting illegal aliens.

Q: The only terrorists known to have entered the U.S. by land have come from Canada, not Mexico. So what in your mind accounts for the widespread conviction that our most serious vulnerability lies in the South?

A: It’s all politics and it always has been.

The president wants to build a $30 billion wall on the southern border, but what is it going to stop? It is common knowledge that 90 percent of human and drug trafficking takes place at ports of entry, not the backcountry where the proposed wall would be built.

There are some racist implications here as well, with the growing sentiment that America needs to stop brown-skinned people from the south penetrating into the States, when the actual threat to the United States, as documented by the federal agencies, is in the north. FBI reports uncovered by The Daily Beast last year show that there have been significantly more encounters with terror suspects on the northern border recently than in the south. Not to mention the opioid crisis, which is being fueled by smugglers in the north.

Nearly every modern American president has used the nation’s southern fringe as a campaign platform, a political bargaining chip, a rallying cry or a trade tactic — all while the country’s longest, most vital and most porous border to the north was neglected. What’s more, the haphazard policies initiated along the “Hi-Line” have done more to antagonize our No. 1 trading partner — and a network of centuries-old cross-border communities there — than to secure it.

Q: Demographers who study Mexican immigration patterns have marshaled persuasive evidence that making the southern border more secure has dramatically increased the population of undocumented immigrants by making it more dangerous for migrant workers to bounce back and forth between their work in the U.S. and their families in Mexico. The theory is that since slipping in and out of the U.S. seasonally became more difficult, more workers are bringing their families here and staying, or starting families here and staying. Did you encounter evidence of anything similar happening along the northern border since 2001?

A: No, the number of migrant workers crossing the northern border is very small. Although, truth be told, crossings in remote regions are detected regularly, but individuals, some armed, repeatedly get away before agents can get there — leading border officials to suggest that they might not know how many people actually cross the northern border illegally.

What they do know is that every year $56 billion in smuggled drugs — including large quantities of opioids, like fentanyl — and thousands of illegal aliens do, in fact, cross the U.S.-Canada border.

Q: Detroit is one of the few large American cities on the northern border. How is the relationship between residents of less densely populated border communities different than the one between Detroiters and their neighbors in Windsor?

A: It’s pretty different. At busy crossings like the Windsor Bridge and Blaine, Washington, there is a heavy presence of Customs and Border Protection services. There is a tremendous amount of surveillance, and I noticed, a feeling that things are being taken care of.

In rural parts of the border, this simply does not exist. There are roads that cross the border with a slim white monument indicating the U.S.-Canada boundary, but nothing actually blocking the road. There are logging roads in the woods of Maine, Vermont, New York, Minnesota, and practically every other state along the northern border that cross the line without any obstruction. Which is to say, you don’t need to walk across the border, you can drive.

The feeling in these communities is understandably a bit paranoid. And, as I discovered in northern Maine, any person with a dark complexion walking into a rural northern border town is likely going to get stopped or questioned. Customs and Border Protection actually counts on this, and uses this grapevine security to shore up the northern border in lieu of proper staffing and funding that it has been asking for for years.

The problem is, townsfolk are not trained professionals, and plenty can slip past.

Q: The United States and Canada have been on the same side in most important political disputes over the last century. Did the people you encountered in your journey express any anxiety that conflicts over natural resources, environmental regulation or immigration policy could fundamentally alter the relationship?

A: I think that there is more tension between the U.S. and Canada then politicians let on. Canada remains America's No. 1 oil importer and No. 3 trading partner. More than 40 oil pipelines cross the northern border. About 95 percent of America’s surface freshwater sits in the Great Lakes basin, and almost half of that is Canada’s.

America has been feeding off of Canada’s natural resources for many years, though the political and military situation on the continent doesn’t allow them to use this to their advantage. Surprisingly, border security has been the biggest flashpoint of all of these issues, and has created more anti-American sentiment in Canada then almost anything else.

Q: How are the border communities you describe in your book likely to change over the next 20 years? Will the boundary between our countries become harder or softer, and what variables will determine that?

A: I don’t see much changing in the next 20 years. After that, I believe that climate change is going to change everything in North America.

As the previous Canadian ambassador to the United States, Gary Doer, said, things like water wars in the future will make arguments over the XL pipeline “look silly.” The vast natural resources that Canada controls are going to be in high demand. As coastal flooding, extreme temperatures and the desertification of the America West take hold, mass northern migration is going to put a lot of pressure on all borders around the world. (We’re already seeing this in Europe.)

One would think that Canada would hold the cards in future border and trade negotiations. But knowing America’s appetite for money, land and power, it seems more rational that the U.S. will eventually revisit plans to simply add its northern neighbor into the Union.

World Refugee Day - tribute from Justin Trudeau

Canadian crest

Ottawa, Ontario
June 20, 2017


The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, issued the following statement on June 20, World Refugee Day:

"On World Refugee Day, we honour the strength and resilience of the millions of people around the world fleeing conflict, insecurity, and persecution. We solemnly acknowledge the hardships they face, celebrate the significant contributions they make to our communities, and recognize the dedication of those who help them.

“Today, over 65 million people are displaced around the world, and more than 22 million of them are refugees. 

They flee unlivable situations in their homelands, crossing deserts and seas to escape, and carrying dreams of a new life even as they struggle with intense loss. These hardships particularly affect women, who bear different and disproportionate effects of conflict and insecurity.

“Canadians are fortunate to live in a country shaped, over the centuries, by the dreams and hard work of millions of immigrants and refugees. Today, we recognize their dignity and potential. Despite the hardships they face, these individuals make many contributions to shape the diverse, strong, and prosperous country Canada is today.

“Canada has a long tradition of welcoming refugees, and today, Canadians continue to help newcomers establish their lives here with compassion and openness. In recent years, communities across the country have welcomed over 40,000 Syrian refugees. Their generosity illustrates the spirit of compassion that defines us as Canadians. When we embrace our differences and come together to welcome newcomers, we strengthen our communities in enduring ways.

“Rising conflict, insecurity, and persecution today have led to migration levels not seen since the Second World War. We have a global responsibility to respond to this crisis and to support those who are forced to leave home. We must address the root causes of forced migration by seeking diplomatic solutions for violent conflicts and standing united in the fight against terrorism. We must also redouble our efforts on climate change, so that it does not further exacerbate insecurity in the world.

“Today, I call on Canadians and people around the world to stand with people seeking shelter from enormous hardship and violence. Refugees are forced to leave home, but they carry with them dreams for their children and the hope of creating a better world. Let us show compassion for their plight, recognize their dignity, and continue to see ourselves in each other.”

Merci!  Thank you Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.