Bradley Hit a Wall

Wall’s question during a Western Canadian & American meeting came in a direct address to President Obama.  The question that he made was which president within history has ever had Canada’s interest at heart.  My guess is that he would say Ronald Reagan.  Since he's had a particular fascination with the former President Reagan, whose relationship with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was a particular source of pride.  In fact, some of Wall's closest political colleagues and advisers argue to this day that Reagan was America's greatest president because it was Reagan's emphasis on massive, debt-accumulating military spending that bankrupted the communist states and ended the biggest threat to the globe from potential nuclear war.  The theory is interesting and has some validity, but it ignores the fact that the threat to world peace didn't exactly end as predicted, and that debt-plagued Reaganomics has had serious implications for the American and global economies ever since.  For Canada and Saskatchewan, the outcome of Reaganomics included a recession that made our oil less profitable and increased U.S. protectionism in the 1980s that produced massive tariffs on softwood lumber exports, uranium, and potash.  It is with this perspective that we should explore a remark Wall made in Saskatoon on Monday about President Barack Obama at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Summit.  People think in this country, perhaps they do, that the Obama administration is good for Canada... The facts say something else.  Clearly, the premier could and should have been wiser with his words to reporters, especially since his tone can so easily be interpreted as injecting a personal bias into the democratic affairs of Canada's biggest trading partner.  That said Wall’s slights hardly constitute an international etiquette.

There is no doubt that Wall was playing to his audience of right-wing American and Canadian political and business types at the conference held in Saskatoon.  His actual PNWER speech was considerably more diplomatic and made the point that a premier should make.  Yet I would surmise Ottawa, Canada's capital had Wall's phones and staff given a cordial Canadian kick in the behind.  There are trade irritants between our countries.  Canada-U.S. relations may not be the worst in decades.  A claim by former Mulroney chief-of-staff and Canadian ambassador to the U.S., Derek Burney, which even Wall disputed Monday.  However, it also would be nonsense to suggest, as current U.S. ambassador to Canada David Jacobson did, that relations have never been better.  Which they have but in the recent years, there has been more progress between Prime Minister Harper and President Obama.  Whether it's been trade challenges against the former Canadian Wheat Board, or the George W. Bush administration's mostly politically motivated response to the discovery of BSE in Canada, to the embarrassment of protectionist U.S. farm bills under every U.S. administration or those 1980s tariffs, Canadian politicians have spent decades struggling with protectionism by U.S. federal and state legislators.

The "Obama Protectionism" to which Wall refers seems more of the same.  In that vein, the premier acknowledged that the Keystone XL pipeline delays are likely a temporary condition related to U.S. election year politics.  This doesn't mean that Wall isn't legitimately frustrated by American environmentalists' misguided view of "Dirty Canadian Oil," or that Obama's “Buy American Rule” in the most recent U.S. stimulus package isn't unfair to Canadian suppliers.  However, is this something unexpected or unusual?  In addition, does it make Obama bad for Canada or worse than any other recent American president?  It's at this point that Wall's argument lacks any historical perspective.  Exactly what constitutes a good American president for Canada is unclear.  However, one would think it would involve a U.S. leader making the world more peaceful, allowing trade and avoiding the kind of protectionism that makes commerce more difficult.  Perhaps Obama's record is hit and misses on both fronts, but that puts him on par with most of his predecessors in the White House.  It certainly doesn't prove that the Obama’s administration is any worse for Canada than any other U.S. administration that Wall might find more appealing politically.  

Yet Brad Wall hardly handled it in a more diplomatic manner.  He came out intentionally as the word is that he will be running for the next Prime Minister of Canada.

 

Interview by James Gormley with Brad Wall attached in mp3

 

 

 

Attachment: Premier Wall joins John Gormley Live to talk PNWER.mp3

Canada and U.S. Meeting of Today.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama declared today that they are working towards a 'new vision' for the Canadian American border that will boost trade between the two countries. One, which will create more jobs but their primary concern, was discussion on security on the border. I was amazed to learn that a predominant amount of the government within America and nearly all of the people, which reside in United States didn’t know that. Now that blew me away to be honest.

Canada is the number one foreign supplier of energy to the United States. Most think it's the Middle East yet Canada is the top supplier of natural gas, uranium, and potash and has the largest amount of natural resources within the World.

For some reason I have this feeling that many don’t know much about Canada yet they do know about there distant relatives but they really are not attune to what Canada is especially when you see that so many don’t realize what is provided between the two largest bilateral trading partners within the entire world. Did you know that Canada was the largest supplier of natural resources?

I have always had a keen thought on these two countries and where they are as well as where they are going too. I don’t see them as being competing countries I see them as to large countries – two not of a exact same kind but two that are side by side.

This Rex Murphy is a very intelligent person up here and I thought I would place a link to his commentary on the recent security reports claimed. I feel that these two countries make for the great team and are great neighbours, neighbors. Do I think much will change yes I think that there will be some more measures put into place with regards to terrorism as has and is always being done. So all in all these two countries do have so much in common but seemingly it's rather different when one right next to the other has no clue of the other. But that is just my thought. Yet many do on both side of the 49th.

http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/rexmurphy/story/2011/02/03/thenational-rexmurphy-020311.html

Each Day Teaches us Something

It was a great day today as went out garage to some garage sales and then with a friend we headed downtown to one of two major markets that take place on the weekend.  The morning was nice as it’s starting to get warmer. My friends went their way and I went my own. I met some very interesting people as within the market there are people that are from the city that are selling there jams, odds and ends, and then there are people that are from other countries that have the most interesting things that one can buy.

 

I was looking for a place to get a coffee and ended inviting me to sit down.  We talked about this city and where I was from.  Seems that is always the case – but we talked about what Edmonton is about and how it’s grown so rapidly over the past few years. As well we spoke on how the city does not really have a theme to it – but we both came to a agreement that an extensive undertaking of the city to do a major extension of the “LRT”, which is the subway here that only services a fraction of the inner city but is in the midst of a rapid expansion ongoing day and night to all areas – which would extend to the suburbs much like the one in NYC. It’s a very spread out city here and we both agreed that coupled with bring a new Arena downtown, which is something that would extend out to different things as Edmonton is a city that has always been considered secondary to Calgary.

 

Included within our discussion we talked about oil. You never hear about it, but right now this is the largest reserve of oil. Back in the 70’s in a briefing in the United States from a close relations (if I can place it that way), the province of Saskatchewan was seen as the largest reserve of Oil and one that was to be looked upon as a reserve that would be there as the timing was right during the oil crisis of the 70's.  Somehow the governments or the people in power put a halt to it and continued to be the largest purchaser of Oil from Suadi Arabia. I don't know why any country would wish to pay the prices while there are reserves that could be much less costly.

 

Alberta has always been and up and down economy based on oil, but where the greatest amount of oil sits is in a province side by side to Alberta. Literally.

Right now Saskatchewan has diamond mines, potash, and it’s just going into drilling in a manner that has not been seen before. I guess that is why it’s the fastest growing place in Canada right now.

 

So often I will periodically watch the news – in particular CNN. And they will speak on so many areas with regards to oil and where they are finding it but the largest commodity is right here and you would think when a nation wishes to become less reliant to the Saudi’s for oil, they would actually mention Canada. For some reason they don’t perhaps Lou Dobbs has his own agenda aside of reporting. But the fact of the matter is that all the oil companies are here from Canada, United States, and China.  Now I know we have to conserve – but when it comes down to it. We don’t really do we?  The only city where I ever did see a majority of people commute was in NYC.

 

Lived in United States nearly as much as in Canada, and if I can mention my own say it would be that Canada is a country that for some reason America does not wish to pay to much attention towards. It seems that the attention is all on the areas that are problematic rather than areas that have resolves. We do live in an economy where we are paying gas at prices that we have never seen before in our life. And it’s not going to go back. Nor are windmills going to resolve this problem. We are a society that has thrived on oil since so far back in time by way of inventors such as Henry Ford, Sigismund Leoni. And we are not like the Europeans where they are less reliant cars, and commute by way of an infrastructure of long standing subways, and will ride bikes more so than we will here.

 

Within 10 years I promise you that oil will be the largest commodity that Canada exports. Trade is a good thing.  Some see it to the contrary but perhaps it’s due to what they don’t know. Or do, but just don’t wish to mention much about it.  Why that is, I don’t know – perhaps they really don’t know.

 

All in all, I don’t think the gentleman’s dog cared much. His name was "Big" and all he cared about was just simple things. However even Big wants to be warm and is reliant to some extent on oil as well. The even dogs of today are different to those of 40 some years ago. I guess we all are spoiled in some way. : )

 

 

Something to think about. Meanwhile it was time for our conversation to end as "Big" had a special errand to make.