Canada VS USA: Trade War?

Originally posted by Regenmacher
It should concern the Canadians the most, that is if they want to learn to speak Mandarine and study Maoism.

I live in Vancouver, BC. We're already there.

In one of our suburbs, Richmond, the Chinese have become the majority. There are many, many stores in that area where the merchants make it quite clear your business is not needed or wanted.

Originally posted by f16falcon
Martin is in a minority and to keep the support of the NDP and Bloc he needs to keep up an anti-american stance in regards to trade.

Traditionally the Conservatives have been a lot more forgiving on trade issues with the US. An indicator of just how seriously Canada takes this is that the Conservatives are now talking tough.

In an apparent shift from his conciliatory style in the past on Canada-U.S. relations, Harper said Wednesday that he would tell George W. Bush there are other markets for Canada's resources.
.....snip....

"We will have to put much higher emphasis in exploiting the growing demand of China, India and others for our natural resource sectors - options that did not exists in the 1980s (when free trade was negotiated.)"
...snip....

At a news conference, Harper said it's time to do more: "We have to make decisions on where we're going to put our investments and this is not a matter of threatening the United States, it's a matter of reaching assessments of what's in our own long-term best interests."

In the meantime, he said, there's no point in returning to the softwood talks: "You don't negotiate after you've won."

Harper talks tough on lumber row

This is going to be part of the Conservative platform in the next election. They will charge that the Liberals have not been tough or agressive enough in dealing with these problems.

Realistically you think the conservatives will talk tough on trade with the US when the time comes?

Right up until the day after the election.

Then they wil revert back to doing whatever they feel like, just like all the other politicians in Canada.