Not much hope for common sense returning

John Horgan and Rachel Notley, look what you’ve started. Once, you were the kiddies have a spat in the sandbox. Horgan blocks Notley’s pipeline; Notley blocks B.C.’s wines. You hit me; I hit you back.

More recently, the sandbox has become the law courts. As an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun noted earlier this week, Horgan could have lawyers arguing two different sides of the same coin, in two side-by-side courtrooms. In one courtroom, that a province has a legal and constitutional right to restrict the shipment of petroleum products; next door, that a province does NOT have the right to restrict shipment of petroleum products. A different province, of course. Legal firms must be rubbing their corporate hands in glee.

But, now the sandbox squabbling has escalated.

The laughing-stock president in the White House just dumped a big bucket of sand on Canada — and on Mexico, though the Canadian media have largely ignored Mexico. Steel and aluminum imports into the United States are now subject to hefty tariffs. Apparently we’re “security threats.” I wonder if someone told President Tweet that Canada was decommissioning its nuclear facility at Chalk River, north of Ottawa. And he assumed that — like North Korea — we must have nuclear capabilities we’re making a public show of dismantling.

Canada, represented by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister for Foreign Affairs Christia Freeland, immediately retaliated with tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum. They also slapped tariffs on products from states that have supplied loyal henchmen for the orange-haired Godfather in Washington. Bourbon from Kentucky. Orange juice from Florida. And maple syrup from….

Wait! Maple syrup? Canada is the world’s number one producer of maple syrup. Quebec alone produces 70 per cent of the world’s maple syrup. Canada exports about $500 million in Canadian dollars a year, over and above our own domestic consumption.

And, we think we need to penalize Vermont?

The sandbox shenanigans begin to look a little juvenile.

I feel sorry for the border security agents dealing with these sandbox scuffles.

I worked, one summer, for what was then Canada Customs. We had an entire shelf of systems and procedures manuals to learn. Tariffs on every conceivable item, from watermelons to heavy artillery. Ranging from fractions of a percentage point to total prohibition.

Pig products, for example. Bacon, ham, pork. In those years, U.S. pigs had trichinosis; Canadian pigs did not. So American visitors could bring in their hunting rifles, but not a cooked ham for their dinner, or smoked bacon for breakfast.

“Your electronic surveillance equipment is fine, sir, but you’ll have to take your bacon back across the border.” “What? And just dump it in the garbage?” “I’m sure your American customs officers would appreciate a food donation…”

It made as much sense as Canadian visitors not being allowed to take a single orange, clearly stamped “produce of California,” back into the country it came from.

Now suddenly, overnight, a whole range of products that were allowable yesterday are now dutiable. With at least a dozen different rates.

I feel for them. Border security is not an enviable job.

My totally subjective impression is that Canadian and American border officers take a different approach to their jobs.

American officers treat everyone with suspicion. They’re convinced that everyone is trying to do an end run on the rules and regulations; their job is to find out what.

Conversely, Canadian officers seem to assume that most people are basically honest. Or at least intend to be honest. If travellers made a mistake calculating their duty-free allowance, it wasn’t deliberate. If they’re penalized, they’ll pay their fine, apologize, and say “Thank you” on their way out.

Prime Minister Trudeau was surprisingly forthright and un-Canadian when he told a press conference that the U.S. imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum was lacking in “common sense.”

He hoped that common sense would return to the U.S. Administration. But he didn’t look hopeful.

Common sense has not been a notable characteristic of politics over the couple of years. The latest round of sandbox rivalries — whether between provinces, in Canada, or between nations — does not bode well for future harmony.

Jim Taylor is an Okanagan Centre author and freelance journalist. He can be reached at rewrite@shaw.ca