The answer to growing economic risk is to invest in Canada

Here’s a lay version of Economics 101 that I think every politician should consider.

Risk No. 1 — Currency risk: In Canada we buy things with Canadian dollars. The more things we buy from other countries, the more we are at “currency risk.” That is to say, if our Canadian dollar weakens against other currencies, then our dollar will buy less product.

Risk No. 2 — Supply risk: Canada’s ability to manufacture consumer goods has been steadily declining. We make fewer and fewer products. As a result, we are dependent on importing more products.

Risk No. 3 — Product risk: Brand name suppliers of virtually all consumer goods have demanded their product be made/assembled in countries where forced labour working up to 15 hours per day earning almost nothing supply container ships bound for Canada.

Quality (Ford was Job 1), dependability (Maytag) and reliability (General Electric) have been replaced by planned product obsolescence like those experienced by Apple users.

Risk No. 4 — Government complicity risk: Governments both here and abroad have, for the most part, fallen victim to the endless propaganda shouted by lobbyists, that private enterprise can do everything better, faster and more economically.

In fact the subtext of this is really shouting, “We can provide fewer jobs for Canadians, while forced labour can produce a product that is guaranteed to wear out quicker, and we can much more money so that our tax accountants can hide our profits in tax havens abroad.”

If the pandemic has shown us any one thing, it’s that our international trading partners are in fact our trading adversaries. Price gouging is rampant in every sector from the hospital-grade face masks to the plastic sheeting used to make golf cart patron separators.

If sacrificing our ability to produce goods results in lower prices, then why has the price of a new truck or automobile risen from the mid $20,000 to an astronomical $65,000? The profit margins on these vehicles must have risen enormously. Since demand has dropped off during the pandemic, the car companies have been able to offer discounts of $15,000 or more and presumably still make a profit.

It was recently suggested that we boycott products made in China to protest the treatment of two Canadians held in there. CCP cares as little for these two Canadians as they do for the thousands who perished in Wuhan. The only way to get their attention is through their economy and imposing tariffs on any good that contains any Chinese input would hit them where they live. As for our exporting to China, they accept only the goods that they can further process or assemble and sell back to us. Need an example? Look to the recent deal where China buys chickens from Canadian farmers for the sole purpose of processing, repackaging and then selling them back to us in our supermarkets.

Mitigate currency risk, supply risk and product risk by making goods and services here in Canada. Allow our workforce to participate at the beginning of the economic production cycle and not at the end, where the profits from countless intermediaries are all ready included.

Mitigate government complicity risk by demanding our politicians listen and help more Canadians by creating jobs at the beginning of the production cycle and less to the Bay Street funded lobbyists crying “wolf at the door” for Canadian business.