DEAR UNCLE SAM, AND AMERICAN COUSINS:
You may not have heard the news yet, because often it takes time for word of Canadian events to penetrate the ever-frantic news-making-and-reporting realm of your media down there (or up there, taking into account the Great State of Alaska).
But you probably will become aware soon that the Canadian establishment's biggest financial wheel, a chap by the name of Mark Carney, 46, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, has just this past weekend made some remarks that could affect our relationship. Some of you, perhaps many of you, might feel hurt by the tenor of his comments.
In fact, you might even feel seriously offended -- because he has suggested, in effect, that it might be time for us to cool it a little insofar as our long, sometimes warm, sometimes not, economic relationship is concerned.
Now when one partner in a two-way human relationship clearly hints, "Let's cool it for a while," what's happening in the vast majority of cases is the beginning of major, and negative, change in a relationship. Especially when it's a very close relationship, such as ours is with the U.S.A; we are, in case you American cousins have forgotten, or have even been aware of it, each others best customers. (By the way, I'm not sure where the concept of Canadians and Americans as cousins originated, but we all know it has been around for seeming eons. No doubt it started in the mind of some politician, Canadian or American.)
IN HIS CTV INTERVIEW at the weekend with the excellent reporter Craig Oliver, Mr. Carney goes further: he suggests that we ought to not just cool it with the Americans, but to get a lot cozier with others, in international economics, in effect "play the field" more. (You Americans might be taking it hard that he also said the U.S. is not a declining power, just a "reclining" one. As for me, I thought it was a great line, though slightly snide.)
Unless I'm seriously mistaken, Mr. Carney is proposing that Canada, trade-wise, should be shifting to what might be termed an "open relationship." (Newt Gingrich should appreciate that, in a rueful way though, since I think he personally has found making a suggestion like that to be risky.)
To be more specific I take Mr. Carney to be saying we should not put so many of our economic eggs in the American basket, but work harder at finding better and bigger markets off-shore, particularly Asia.
We are obliged to pay attention to Mr. Carney. He has, if anyone has, a gold-plated economic background: born in Fort Smith, NWT, he has degrees from Harvard (Bachelor of Economics), and Oxford's Nuffield College (masters and doctorate in economics). So, American cousins, you, too, really ought to listen to what he says.
I'M QUITE SURE, OF COURSE, that you will not find it easy to accept some of his remarks, and you might even indulge yourselves in unkind remarks about Canada. Possibly words along the following lines:
"Sure, you Canadians are good buddies when the going is good. But, now, just when America's having serious economic problems, and might not be able to give you as much business as we have, what does your big economic honcho do? He bad-mouths us, saying that we can recover, mainly, but not enough to get back to the way we were."
Probably some of you American cousins will regard the Carney remarks as "un-American," and totally unbecoming for one of Canada's top international spokesmen. You might even go so far as to say, "They're just fair-weather friends, those Canadians with all their gol-darn oil and natural gas. Some cousins they are!"
Permit me to remind our cousins that there are inscriptions on the Peace Arch at the Blaine, Washington State, border crossing that suggest we're even more closely related than cousins. It says, on the American side of the arch: "Children of a Common Mother" -- referring, of course, to our common British origins. On the Canadian side, the inscription declares: "Brethren Dwelling Together In Unity."
I THINK IT IMPORTANT that Americans understand we in Canada share your love for freedom of speech. It's in our constitution, as it is in yours. We also are huge customers of your movies, your books, magazines, almost anything in the entertainment field. In fact, sometimes I think Canadians look so much to American cultural products that they could be mistaken for wanna-be Americans.
As I have said in the past, though, criticizing America is one of the main hobbies of Canadians. Could it be that we are sort of jealous of them? On the other hand, lots of Canadians have made it big in the U.S., in many fields, but especially entertainment. Is it because our entertainers seem like Americans?
I think we'd prefer to have their good stuff, and forget about the rest.
For myself in the criticism field, I believe that the U.S. is far too aggressive in its international politics and economics, in its militarism and the way it projects the attitude that its role is to rule the world.
HAVING SAID ALL THAT, I return to Mr. Carney. Let me try to calm any anger you Americans may have worked up over Mr. Carney, and assure you that the whole thing will blow over. He has given you an incentive, a goal to be achieved. All you have to do is get your rear-ends into gear and work your way out of it. Your big goal: just prove Mark Carney wrong. Really, he has issued you a challenge.
Permit me to close by pointing out that it's not unusual for cousins to have quarrels. So we shouldn't allow the "negativisms" from Mr. Carney to confuse the issue. I think it's pretty sure that we Canadians and Americans will remain cousins, of a sort.
Just not kissin'-cousins, maybe.
Regards,
Cousin Alex
Richmond, B.C.
POSTSCRIPT: For people involved in the overheated real estate market of the Greater Vancouver area, I must note that Mr. Carney gave his usual warning that Canadians should beware of taking on too much debt. He said: "Canadians could overextend themselves and could get into a position where the debts that are sustainable at very low interest rates prove unsustainable when rates return to a more normal level."
As the guy who has a lot of influence on interest rates, he should know what he'd talking about. He is, in fact, not "just" the person in charge of The Bank of Canada. He also is a very big bigshot on the world financial scene.
He has been appointed Financial Stability Board chairman by the Group of 20 (the G20) industrialized nations. That board of central bankers, financial officers and regulators, set up after the 2008 economic crisis, has the job of, well, trying to ensure the stability of financial institutions. Its primary job, I suspect, is to determine which financial institutions will get bailed out by poor average joes the next time things hit the skids.
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