Canada, the Last Free Trader

(Thomas Walkom — The Toronto Star)

For 20 years, Canada has focused on free trade with the United States. It is our special relationship, the fulcrum of our economy, our one and only big idea.

But there are indications that this particular big idea is fast becoming passé.

In part, the sheer fact of the global slump is to blame. As the perennial softwood lumber dispute shows, the U.S. has never entirely embraced its obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Any recession merely heightens America’s protectionist instincts.

But this is not just any recession. It is shifting the balance in the world economy. The America that emerges from this slump promises to be a significantly different country.

Pre-recession America was the world’s glutton – a country whose consumers were willing to buy anything and everything even if they had to go into debt.

For Canada, with unique access to this massive and undiscriminating market, prosperity was assured. Did Americans want gas-guzzling pickups? Canadians would build them – and then provide the petroleum to make them run.

Did Americans want lumber to build houses that ultimately they couldn’t afford? No problem. We’d sell them that as well.