Fred, you hit a very interesting point in your summary, about inflation. And while not in this particular posting, not that long ago (a day or two) you also commented on interest rates.
In my entire life, it's always been some variant of "US inflation/borrowing rates are considerably lower than Canada."
All of a sudden, Canada is marginally ahead on BOTH!
Whether that trend is just a blip or not, that's still to be seen.
Grant, that's a great observation because for most of our lives the script was almost always the same...
Lower inflation? America.
Lower interest rates? America.
Stronger growth? America.
Canada usually paid a premium for being the smaller economy sitting beside the giant.
What's unusual right now is that some of those traditional advantages have narrowed... or even flipped.
Whether it's temporary or the beginning of a longer shift is the big question.
What interests me isn't that Canada is suddenly outperforming the U.S. in every category.
We're not.
It's that the gap isn't moving in the direction most people expected a year ago.
If Canada can keep inflation under control while diversifying trade and attracting investment, and if the U.S. continues adding costs through tariffs and uncertainty...
we could be watching a very rare moment where the economic gravity between the two countries becomes a little less one-sided.
As you said, time will tell.
But it's definitely not a headline I expected to be writing in my seventies.
Yes, the projection was that Canada (and much of the rest of the world, too, but us because of economic intertwining with USA) was really REALLY supposed to be suffering massive contraction right now. And somehow, Carney's done enough of the pivot discussions with rest of the world, so that we only have slight contraction.
No, we're not winning the day (yet) but we are functioning better than projected so far. I think the next stage will be seeing how things really pivot from general agreements (the handshakes) to specific agreements, and then when do we see "shovels in the ground" at making it happen. If that happens at accelerated rates of time, then national (and international) confidence should show in all of the measures and economic performance. If we see delays, then confidence will evaporate.
Trump makes Mark Carney look like the second coming of Christ by comparison. Every Trump move is intentionally designed to destroy and collapse the economy so he can install a police state and autocratic rule. He almost makes it easy for Canada to do better on every front that matters.
Growing greens in vertical farms is doable. There are at least 3 provinces that have produced greens that I have bought in my local stores. Alberta, BC and ON.
I don’t know about fruits as alot of these grow on trees, so these would be limited by season as I don’t know a way we could grow them year around.
Also thinking, perhaps we could take a few steps back and relearn to make do with what we have. Perhaps we don’t always need to go exotic - I say as I just spent extra $$’s on Mexican mangoes. 🥭 Said more to remind myself I think.
Loved your reference to economic decisions being like a cage match! It perfectly embodies the difference between us and Americans’ strategy - and really perspective, on many issues and concepts. A huge concept said in just a few words. People often don’t understand the beauty and importance of “little” things, comments. It’s like the proverbial “tip of the iceberg.” To say so much with so little. Cheers my friend! Keep ‘em coming!
Fred, you hit a very interesting point in your summary, about inflation. And while not in this particular posting, not that long ago (a day or two) you also commented on interest rates.
In my entire life, it's always been some variant of "US inflation/borrowing rates are considerably lower than Canada."
All of a sudden, Canada is marginally ahead on BOTH!
Whether that trend is just a blip or not, that's still to be seen.
Grant, that's a great observation because for most of our lives the script was almost always the same...
Lower inflation? America.
Lower interest rates? America.
Stronger growth? America.
Canada usually paid a premium for being the smaller economy sitting beside the giant.
What's unusual right now is that some of those traditional advantages have narrowed... or even flipped.
Whether it's temporary or the beginning of a longer shift is the big question.
What interests me isn't that Canada is suddenly outperforming the U.S. in every category.
We're not.
It's that the gap isn't moving in the direction most people expected a year ago.
If Canada can keep inflation under control while diversifying trade and attracting investment, and if the U.S. continues adding costs through tariffs and uncertainty...
we could be watching a very rare moment where the economic gravity between the two countries becomes a little less one-sided.
As you said, time will tell.
But it's definitely not a headline I expected to be writing in my seventies.
Yes, the projection was that Canada (and much of the rest of the world, too, but us because of economic intertwining with USA) was really REALLY supposed to be suffering massive contraction right now. And somehow, Carney's done enough of the pivot discussions with rest of the world, so that we only have slight contraction.
No, we're not winning the day (yet) but we are functioning better than projected so far. I think the next stage will be seeing how things really pivot from general agreements (the handshakes) to specific agreements, and then when do we see "shovels in the ground" at making it happen. If that happens at accelerated rates of time, then national (and international) confidence should show in all of the measures and economic performance. If we see delays, then confidence will evaporate.
Trump makes Mark Carney look like the second coming of Christ by comparison. Every Trump move is intentionally designed to destroy and collapse the economy so he can install a police state and autocratic rule. He almost makes it easy for Canada to do better on every front that matters.
Frank, I understand the anger.
But I’m careful about claiming we know Trump’s exact endgame.
What we can see is damaging enough...
tariffs raising costs, allies being treated as enemies, institutions being weakened, and economic uncertainty being manufactured almost daily.
Carney doesn’t need to be a saviour by comparison.
He simply has to look calm, competent, and interested in governing rather than performing.
These days, apparently, that’s a remarkably high bar.
PM Carney spoke of changes to how we feed ourselves. Instead of importing so much from US,
we can grow our own. I will be thrilled when this happens. I love fresh fruits and spinach. I wish
we could grow our own in new systems designed for our climate. That would make such a difference.
Growing greens in vertical farms is doable. There are at least 3 provinces that have produced greens that I have bought in my local stores. Alberta, BC and ON.
I don’t know about fruits as alot of these grow on trees, so these would be limited by season as I don’t know a way we could grow them year around.
I agree with the vertical farms that grow greens. It bothers me that when I buy spinach, grown in the US year round.
As for the fruit, it would be more difficult, other than the fruits we already grow in summer.
We're probably never going to grow oranges and bananas in Saskatchewan, but greens, herbs, greenhouse vegetables, berries,
and other climate-suitable crops are a different story.
Every pound we can grow here is one less pound we have to import.
Food security isn't about growing everything... it's about growing more of what we can.
Also thinking, perhaps we could take a few steps back and relearn to make do with what we have. Perhaps we don’t always need to go exotic - I say as I just spent extra $$’s on Mexican mangoes. 🥭 Said more to remind myself I think.
Loved your reference to economic decisions being like a cage match! It perfectly embodies the difference between us and Americans’ strategy - and really perspective, on many issues and concepts. A huge concept said in just a few words. People often don’t understand the beauty and importance of “little” things, comments. It’s like the proverbial “tip of the iceberg.” To say so much with so little. Cheers my friend! Keep ‘em coming!
Thanks, Patricia.
That's one of the nicest compliments a writer can get.
If a simple analogy helps make a complicated issue easier to understand, then I've done my job.
I really appreciate your encouragement. 😊
Anything to help! You certainly returned it - full stop.