Barry takes time to introduce Canadians to the thinking of Stephen K Bannon who has significant influence on President Trump’s approach to keep the pressure on so many different fronts at the same time. In Barry’s view this is a very different Trump administration and we ought not to antagonize the USA with responding to further trade tariffs but be strategic in building up Canada’s infrastructure to trade with more internationally instead of relying on trade solely with the USA.
As Wolfgang Munchau said:
“The better response to Trump’s trade tariffs, then, would not be to fight back, but to fix that underlying problem — the lack of domestic investment and consumption. Why not make it more attractive for companies to invest their surpluses at home? Why not deregulate the economy, especially the tech sector, support new businesses, reduce corporate taxes; attract the best talent from abroad; and get people off the welfare and sickness payrolls? The powerful response to Trump would be to focus on solving these twin problems — the imbalance and the dependency.
The worst response would be to stick with the same old model, and the same dependencies, and to embark on a trade war it cannot win. Canada, more dependent on the US than anyone else, will be crushed if it follows through with Trudeau’s policies. His response plays well with fellow liberals, but it achieves nothing economically — and Trump will no doubt double down if Canada retaliates.”
See more of Barry’s work at: www.firstfreedoms.ca
