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Canada and the World

kEiThZ said:
financialpost.com

Successive governments have taken Canada's economic security for granted, businesses say

A new report by the Business Council of Canada says Canada needs a new national security policy based on economic security. Read more.
financialpost.com financialpost.com

The most important paragraph:

I've been saying for a while that this country is a bit naive. Good to see the business sector trying to push the government to take these threats more seriously.
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Though businesses need to take their share of responsibilities as well - they offshored to lower costs (for the benefit of their shareholders), and they were also the ones who lean hard on free trade in the first place.

AoD
 
yrt+viva=1system said:
Pretty much, Canada is a punching bag. I mean look at what happened when the country arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on behalf of the US. Canada is a easy target as we don't have the military or economic might to coerce others. Other countries see us weak and too naïve.
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Remember this?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1706768371998732564

The authoritarian regimes are becoming a lot more assertive. And they are basically exploiting our hypocrisy. We insist on separating trade and human rights. Well that removes all our leverage. They know we'll keep trading with them. See Saudi Arabia - US relations lately.

If Trudeau actually thought the Indian hit was worth standing up for, he should be willing to cut visas for Indian students (something that would actually hurt Modi at home). But the fact that we don't do that is exactly why the Indians are laughing at us. Now they know they can get away with it. Why would they not carry out more hits?
 
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kEiThZ said:
Remember this?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1706768371998732564

The authoritarian regimes are becoming a lot more assertive. And they are basically exploiting our hypocrisy. We insist on separating trade and human rights. Well that removes all our leverage. They know we'll keep trading with them. See Saudi Arabia - US relations lately.

If Trudeau actually thought the Indian hit was worth standing up for, he should be willing to cut visas for Indian students (something that would actually hurt Modi at home). But the fact that we don't do that is exactly why the Indians are laughing at us. Now they know they can get away with it. Why would they not carry out more hits?
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China is systemically being cut out of advanced supply chains. I'm not sure this is the lesson. The west is untangling itself in strategic industries as quickly as possible.
 
afransen said:
China is systemically being cut out of advanced supply chains. I'm not sure this is the lesson. The west is untangling itself in strategic industries as quickly as possible.
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Got a link? I'd love to read more. Shunning China is the way forward.
 
www.nytimes.com

‘An Act of War’: Inside America’s Silicon Blockade Against China (Published 2023)

The Biden administration thinks it can preserve America’s technological primacy by cutting China off from advanced computer chips. Could the plan backfire?
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

The US is pretty aggressively reshoring a lot of manufacturing. A decade worth of capex took place in China, it will take time to replace it in the US. There definitely some industries where the US will be hard pressed to catch China. Things like solar panels and batteries, for instance, which are going to be critical over the next couple of decades. Unless fusion finally arrives, solar+wind+batteries is going to eat the global energy industry.
 
afransen said:
China is systemically being cut out of advanced supply chains. I'm not sure this is the lesson. The west is untangling itself in strategic industries as quickly as possible.
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And knowing that China is being cut out means other countries (like India) taking advantage of the West.

Part of the problem here, for Canadians, is that there's a massive gap between how we think we are perceived and how we are actually perceived. Canadians think the world respects us as a middle power. That may have been true in the 50s or 60s. Not true today. I was chatting with an Indian diplomat once (many years ago, before Trudeau). He flat out told me, "We don't see what the point of Canada is. You have a small population and economy. Yet, you go around lecturing everybody and you have seats at the G7, NATO, etc Our goal is to replace countries like yours on the world stage.". He then went on to relate that was at least part of their motivation for having nukes (all the P5 have nukes). This is literally how they see us. We're off-brand USA, the consolation prize if your kids don't get into American or British schools. And since our own allies think we're not serious on defence and foreign policy, why should they? I think the recent incident would have been handled far less bombastically by India if Canada was in AUKUS and the Quad. Since Canada is just seen as useless to them, labeling it as hostile is easy.

Canadians need to learn that in this century influence doesn't come from what your grandfather or great-grandfather did in WWII. It's what you can do for your allies today. Be that a military contribution or major economic support. If we can't provide a full brigade to NATO or energy exports to Europe when they need it to get off Russian energy, or we can't provide meaningful military forces in the Pacific, why should anybody take us seriously? India saw through us. They won't be the last.
 
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Population and geography dictates we will always be 'America-lite' to some degree, but it doesn't have to be as prominent as it is now. We're like San Marino is to Italy.
 
lenaitch said:
Population and geography dictates we will always be 'America-lite' to some degree, but it doesn't have to be as prominent as it is now. We're like San Marino is to Italy.
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Errr, San Marino has less than 0.05% of the population of Italy.

Canada has 11.9% of the U.S. population.

Zero dispute that we're not on the same geo-political level as U.S., but I think the analogy is a bit off.
 
Northern Light said:
Errr, San Marino has less than 0.05% of the population of Italy.

Canada has 11.9% of the U.S. population.

Zero dispute that we're not on the same geo-political level as U.S., but I think the analogy is a bit off.
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It's exaggerated but closer than you think to the reality of how the world actually sees us. This is what Canadians don't get. Influence is not somehow directly proportional. It's based on what a country can do for another. And on this front, a country that treats foreign policy, military assistance and even development assistance as basically optional activities will be accorded influence as such.

We may be 1/9th the US in population but we show up with much less than 1/9th the force or the dollars when called on. Nobody should be surprised that we are treated as annoying American appendage than genuine respected middle power.
 
One perspective on Canada's now and future relevance. Canada does have the potential to be a significant geopolitical power. I fully agree we are not living up to that potential at the moment.

www.nextbigfuture.com

Twitter Space on the Next Great Power | NextBigFuture.com

I, Brian Wang, will be talking with Warren Redlich and @Anything Tesla about the Next Great Power. China vs USA vs India.
www.nextbigfuture.com www.nextbigfuture.com
 
Northern Light said:
The Feds are apparently looking to cut 1B from Defence spending.


Interesting way to pretend to be trying to meet the 2% target of NATO.

****

One could agree or disagree with the 2% target but either way find it distasteful that Ottawa appears to be say one thing and do another.
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Don't worry..

They will give that 1 Billion Dollars to some unfortunate nation we've never heard of.

Tonga may need some financial support to rebuild critical infrastructure after a typhoon. Tunesia may need help relocating sand after a sand storm at a cost of 500 million in aid!

The Federal Governments priorities are so far out of touch.
 
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