<snip>Do you even understand that I'm partially arguing that the current Liberal Canadian government fucked up by not taking strong action to help business diversify out trade relationships*? <snip>
*Disclaimer: in fairness to the current government, I haven't researched the issue to know whether the government tried to facilitate such a move and Canadian businesses rejected them out of complacency, or if it was the Canadian government who was complacent (or received promises from the incoming Biden administration). Regardless, it was a failure to realize that what happened then could happen again at any time, and when the Canadian economy has already been weakened by so many other factors of late. People were complaining of structural weakness in the economy 15 years ago so it hasn't got much to do with what party is in power per se; rather I'd say there's has been a general sense across the nation of over-confidence the 800 pound gorilla next to is never going to just roll over and crush us because reasons.
So again, I never said there weren't other occasions in the past that should have prompted a re-think of our relationships; only that the arbitrary nature of Trump's tariffs the first time around should have been an especially sharp smack on the collective face of Canadians. Judging by the reaction this time around though, I'd say a lot of people have woken up now.
Good talk.
