Changing Times for Canada!
By Scott A. Sumner
In 2025 we have experienced quite a lot of uncertainty and change in Canada. The main source of that change comes from our neighbour to the South, the United States of America and their new leadership. There are other factors to our change as well such as the quickly advancing technology lead by AI but perhaps the biggest factor is the new trade patterns we have now and can expect in the future it seems.
Canada is a trading country with great natural resources that are needed by most in the world. Our minerals, oil and gas, lumber, agricultural resources, water, electricity and large land mass- the second largest in the world, are all important assets that have made Canada strong.
We have done much of our trading with the US- probably for many reasons including their close proximity to us, their huge GDP- the number one in the world, and historically stable environment. This made it an easy path to choose over many decades. We do trade with others in the world but it has been dwarfed by the trade we have done with the US.
Unfortunately the US has become an unreliable trade partner. They have placed high tariffs on Canada in many key sectors and would like to carry forward with them to the detriment of Canada's economy and reallytheir own in reality. They seem to be trying to force jobs located in Canada to the US, say in the auto manufacturing field or the softwood lumber area for example. This isn't a good thing for our economy and means we have to pivot our focus and pivot quickly. It has been good to see the direction of our new government under Prime Minister Mark Carney. I recently saw his instagram post which was a quite succinct description of where he wants Canada to go.
* Building new partnerships abroad in Europe, Asia for example
* Adjusting Government spending which has grown significantly especially during COVID, down to reflect the new circumstances Canada faces.
* make massive investments in the things that grow Canada's economy- homes, new ports, electricity grids, major infrastructure to unlock our potential. -an example from the past of this was in the 1950's The St Lawrence Seaway System which would have cost about $4 billion in today's dollars but has shipped over $1trillion worth of cargo to the world.
* use Canadian steel, aluminum, lumber and technology and Canadian workers to be our own best customer and sell to the world to double what we export beyond the US.
* make investments to protect our borders with the military.
I think now is the time for a strong plan to move forward on these objectives. This will in a way transform Canada to a more resilient economy that is ready to compete with the world and offer our tremendous resources and strengths to others. It really is an all hands on deck approach that is needed and I hope we can focus on this as a united country.
The end result will be a higher standard of living for every Canadian, by achieving more of our potential and creating the ability to grow Canada to compete in the world!
