Fingers Crossed For Trudeau

Posted on December 16, 2016 by Jean

I think it’s always been understood that Canada is not a country that’s going to stand up and beat its chest on the world stage, but we can be very helpful in modelling solutions that work. Quite frankly if we can show – as we are working very hard to demonstrate – that you can have engaged global perspectives and growth that works for everyone … then that diffuses a lot of the uncertainty, the anger, the populism that is surfacing in different pockets of the world.
—Justin Trudeau: ‘Globalisation isn’t working for ordinary people’

Fingers crossed for Trudeau and for Canada. The world can use some positive role models now.

December 16, 2016

 

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8 Responses to Fingers Crossed For Trudeau

  1. Rummuser says:
    December 16, 2016 at 5:30 am

    You can say that again. There are very few of his ilk in the world just now. I however strongly believe that he is in for some serious disillusionment with his refugee policy.

  2. tammy j says:
    December 16, 2016 at 7:31 am

    I like Justin very much from what I’ve read about him.
    but then I liked his father too.

  3. Still the Lucky Few says:
    December 16, 2016 at 10:33 am

    Globalisation does not work for the ordinary Canadian, that is true. Kudos to our Prime Minister for acknowledging that and actually saying it. By admitting problems and stating them, you take the ‘fire’ out of anger and dissent. For that reason (optimism that the PM is listening) we may be able to avert the populism that is drifting over democracies, world wide. Awareness is one part of it, and action is the other—that is what we need now.

    • Jean says:
      December 17, 2016 at 3:11 pm

      You not only take the fire out of anger and dissent, you have a chance of getting support when you try something else. The Atlantic recently had an article, Globalization Doesn’t Make as Much Sense as It Used To, essentially saying it’s time to try something else:

      So, there came to be a consensus that the fix was for America to negotiate more and better free-trade deals, and that is what Washington tried to do until about a year ago. The result has been the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), NAFTA, the U.S.-Korea (KORUS) free-trade agreement, and China’s entrance into the WTO. These developments have been accompanied by a steady increase of the U.S.’s annual trade deficit (from the roughly $20 billion in 1980 to the current $500 billion), the offshoring of much formerly U.S.-based production (even in capital- and technology-intensive industries), and the widening of inequality in U.S. incomes and wealth.

      The results of the election seem to indicate that—the views of economists and foreign-policy experts notwithstanding—America is about to change course on trade policy. That doesn’t necessarily mean a return to pre-World War II protectionism. It could instead simply mean a revival of the spirit that inspired the foundations of the postwar economic order. That spirit, articulated by the economist John Maynard Keynes, focused on assuring balanced trade—the avoidance of chronic surpluses on the part of some trading partners and chronic deficits on the part of others. Thus a new order might operate to prevent the misalignment of currency valuations, to abolish or offset the impact of tax subsidies, and to mitigate the implicit subsidization of state-owned enterprises. It has been largely forgotten that one of the key objectives of postwar free-trade policy was to maintain a roughly balanced trade account—a goal that the country is likely about to pursue anew and that will likely affect its policies touching on not just trade, but investments, currency, technology, and labor as well.

      Fingers crossed for Trump, too. He may be a disaster, or we might be lucky and he does some good.

  4. Still the Lucky Few says:
    December 16, 2016 at 1:44 pm

    Trudeau is respected in Canada. I value that he meets any criticism head on, admits or refutes whatever the problem is, and moves on. He has good instincts, and we are optimistic about his future performance.

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