And what exactly would we do with all these resources and manufactured goods that we used to ship to the US? Remember most of Europe and Asia have protected their markets from outside manufactured goods.
Could Canada survive.....
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Talk of opening up more trade with the EU in a "Free Trade" manner have actually been in the works for the last few days since the election. We already trade with China, and about a year or two ago, Harper was attempting to open up more trade with some countries in South America.... Nations in which the US won't touch for their own reasons, so there's lots of opportunity there...... and even if none of those pan out, there are many other options to work with.
Just because we trade mostly with the US, doesn't mean that's the only market we have or can get...... it has simply been the easiest..... so we became acustomed to it.
In other words we don't have to rely on Uncle Sam anymore, he got drunk with power and fell in the gutter.:lol:
Praxius
I agree wholeheartedly with opening up as many new markets as possible. Problem is we're geared to feed the American consumer. Those products won't necessarily sell in South America, China, or Africa. Could the auto plants in southern Ontario retool to making 3 wheeled delivery scooters? Could the C.A.W. membership build a product for under $15.000, because most of the rest of the world can only afford the $2,000 scooter. Europe only wants our raw resources as they protect their manufacturing sector. Regardless of all that we would be hard pressed to convert 75% of our export manufacturing to sell to the rest of the world.
I agree wholeheartedly with opening up as many new markets as possible. Problem is we're geared to feed the American consumer. Those products won't necessarily sell in South America, China, or Africa. Could the auto plants in southern Ontario retool to making 3 wheeled delivery scooters? Could the C.A.W. membership build a product for under $15.000, because most of the rest of the world can only afford the $2,000 scooter. Europe only wants our raw resources as they protect their manufacturing sector. Regardless of all that we would be hard pressed to convert 75% of our export manufacturing to sell to the rest of the world.
In a nut shell, yeah. There have been many of our own politicians who have tried to twist the information and blow the porpotions on how much we rely on the US for trade, and to a degree they are right.
Whenever you ask our leaders if we could trade more with other nations besides the US, their response is pretty much always "We rely on the US for the majority of our trading outside of the nation." ~ And that's about it. Not really a straight answer now is it? It's a statement of the current obvious to defend current trends to please those filling their pockets south of the border.... all the while not directly lying to us, because they never actually answered the question.
Yes, it's true we trade mostly with the US..... but that doesn't mean we have to, and it doesn't mean it would be impossible not to trade elsewhere and meet the current demand load with various other nations around the world.
Already our markets and trade are stating that the US is buying less and less of our products due to their poor economy, so wouldn't it be a wise idea to fill in that gap left by them with other countries interested in our products? Or should we "Stay the Course" and wait until the US can buy our stuff again...... all the while more and more people lose their jobs waiting for the market to pick back up on the US side of things?
I say every nation for themselves..... save our workers, trade elsewhere.
Fair enough, but our auto sectors need to be modified to keep up to date with trends anyways..... less SUV's and trucks are being bought because of the gas prices..... they need to switch to hybred development, and if the market is available in South America, we could easily train and intergrate the technology required for building those vehicles. There are also many other nations besides those, such as in Africa, Asia, and once the EU thing pans out, we will see what is available there too.
The market needs to adapt to demand.... if not then you're not in it. If we were given the contracts to develop scooters for a paticular country at a certain value, there will be people there to take up the challenge and make it happen.
It isn't a process that could be done over night in regards to converting that much from the US to elsewhere, but it is possible, and the more options we work on and make for ourselves, the better we will be off when it comes to offering bids to those projects.
Then there is the whole concept of internal marketing inside our own borders, where we should be developing most of the things we seem to import, such as food and many of those other products we get from China.
It wouldn't be the easiest thing to do, but it would still be possible..... and if one works hard on making those possible, then our security in our economy will be a lot stronger then it currently is..... if we spread our market out to many other nations, rather then focusing on just one big one like the US, if and when one of those countries smacks into a similar situation as the US is facing today, we'd still have many other markets holding strong until that problem passes over, and therefore we wouldn't be affects as badly as what has recently happened with such things as our lumber and auto industries.
I agree with the re-tooling of our manufacturing sector. Now is the perfect opportunity for our government to invest in the R & D for those products and get a jump on American manufacturers while they're suffering. If GM, Ford, and Chrysler want to ramp up manufacturing and there's plants in Canada ready to go with all the tooling and training in place the choice would be made for them already. You want to make money, build a small easy to maintain and reliable truck that could outsell the Toyota Tundra. There are millions of them in the "non-G8" world
But to compete internationally the big Canadian employers who are heavily unionized, (nothing against unions I was in one for years and know the benefits), will have to negotiate lower wages and benefits and unions do not accept change very well. This will be necessary to compete in low average national income states such as China, India, or whole regions such as South America and Africa. If donuts costs you a $1.00 to make you can't sell them in Beijing if the local donut guy is making them for 20 cents.
As for the scooter example we have a local manufacturer who could easily jump into that market as they have all the technology developed, Bombardier. Bombardier's snowmobile and ATV technology should have made it a no-brainer but again because of the expected wages and benefits they have to pay out it isn't economically feasible. Setting up shop in one of those other countries would negate those costs but is of no value to Canada domestically.
It's not only our manufacturing that would have to change but our whole expectations of "income" would have to be lowered. Canadians are just not prepared to do that. We love our lifestyles and freedoms too much.
But to compete internationally the big Canadian employers who are heavily unionized, (nothing against unions I was in one for years and know the benefits), will have to negotiate lower wages and benefits and unions do not accept change very well. This will be necessary to compete in low average national income states such as China, India, or whole regions such as South America and Africa. If donuts costs you a $1.00 to make you can't sell them in Beijing if the local donut guy is making them for 20 cents.
As for the scooter example we have a local manufacturer who could easily jump into that market as they have all the technology developed, Bombardier. Bombardier's snowmobile and ATV technology should have made it a no-brainer but again because of the expected wages and benefits they have to pay out it isn't economically feasible. Setting up shop in one of those other countries would negate those costs but is of no value to Canada domestically.
It's not only our manufacturing that would have to change but our whole expectations of "income" would have to be lowered. Canadians are just not prepared to do that. We love our lifestyles and freedoms too much.
In today's economic situation, those `sacrifices`
that you mentioned will have to be made, or we are dead in the water.
scratch
That's debatable. Regardless though, the US has been around since the inception of the league, Detroit, Boston, Chicago and NY are true hockey markets... unlike some of the teams in the South which barely make a profit.
Nevermind the cost to ship overseas as opposed to trucking things across the border.
Or you can let China ram it up your butts like they did to the US. If that is what you seek...ENJOY! They'll be glad to make you a vassal state.
Or you can let China ram it up your butts like they did to the US. If that is what you seek...ENJOY! They'll be glad to make you a vassal state.
Canada is in the best shape to weather this storm. The US will eventually climb out of the hole they've dug themselves and business will resume. As Pierre Trudeau once said we can't ignore the elephant in the room. Besides our oil there's not much else they need from us. Russia, South America, and China could easily replace our goods with some US investments and technology.
But they are still down south and not north in Canada. Why did cities like Nashville Tennessee and the Carolina's get teams over Saskatoon or St. Johns?
$$$$$$$ & population I'm guessing. Saskatoon and St johns are relatively small cities and have limited media exposure.
Of the 30 NHL teams there are only 6 teams in Canadian cities...SIX. You think Canada could support an additional 24 teams and be profitable? Not likely...not at all.
Then you are proving my point. I also doubt that Columbus Ohio is bigger than every other large Canadian city (save the six that have teams) yet Columbus has a team and other major Canadian cities don't.
No ... it could go back to being an elite six team league where REAL hockey was played. It was too much money that watered it down, made it big business and ruined the game
I think Betman might regret granting teams to cities like that though as they aren't exactly market leaders. There is ongoing talk of Jim Basile trying to buy Nashville's team and moving it to Hamilton, Ontario which is a pretty big market.
I wouldn't doubt it if Betman tries setting up shop overseas next, he's been steadily increasing the number of exhibition/season games played in Europe.
Drop the player salaries by half and the southern American teams will survive and there will be at least 4 more Canadian teams maybe 5. Regina/Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Quebec City, and even Halifax might be able to do it. The least talented rookie makes 30 times the average national salary, 15 times would still be a lot of dough!
Should this be split and moved to the Hockey forum?
Should this be split and moved to the Hockey forum?