Some history of economic incompetence

[licks2nite]

When looking for history of the Canadian "economy", overseas labour and trade treaties, I found some of the most telling information in the history of Toronto's economy that concludes that today, Ontario produces most of Canada's manufactured exports.


From Encyclopedia Britannica:

National Policy of 1879 imposed high tariffs on imported consumer products. The advantage to Toronto (and other manufacturing centres) was that Canadians were forced to buy domestic-made goods. This prevented U.S. products from crossing the border but not U.S. firms. The policy allowed U.S. (and British) companies to set up branch plants in Canada. Toronto, with its well-established ties and close proximity to the manufacturing belt of the United States, benefited greatly from this policy as many U.S. companies established plants in the city.

By the 1970s, globalization had begun to take its toll on manufacturing industries, especially labour-intensive industries such as clothing, shoe, and textile manufacturing. These industries moved to labour-cheap regions of the world. Adding to the demise of many manufacturing firms was the initial Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 1989, followed by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993. These agreements facilitated trade and investment, but U.S. branch plants no longer needed to locate in Canada, and many Toronto plants closed...

As the capital of Canada's most populous province, the city has a widely diversified economy. Ontario produces more than half of Canada's manufactured goods and most of its manufactured exports. It has immense resources of raw materials—minerals, timber, water, and agricultural products.

I'm just a first responder. Honour my diagnosis and observation that recovery of the patient could be hastened.

 

[80watts]

Toronto and Montreal were the places. Every other city and province were looked to supply the raw materials for manufacturing. Industry towns were set up in the 50 and 60s. They were all dying out by the early 90s. School systems in those places were set up for the the industry running the town. When the industry towns (pulp and paper, mining) shut down, the town died too.
Industry used to be set up by rivers or streams for transports and for dumping their waste. There are still areas in Canada that are extremely polluted because of past industry. Heavy industry in Canada is dead. No ship building. Its too expensive to put ships under Canadian Flag (maintenance and wages cutting into profits). Heavy industry used train tracks, how much of those tracks still operate. On the prairies there used to be miles of tracks and an grain storage (silo) in every town with tracks going by it. Now farmers truck over 50 miles to get it to a storage silo to an track to get their grain to market. This has more to do with how the infrastructure changed to truck.diesel transport and the use of trains for long hauling for specific cargos (mostly chemicals).

 

[Lo-ki]

A picture is worth a thousand words.....

 

[Uncled]

A picture is worth a thousand words.....
View attachment 4351

Hey Justin - pull my finger.

 

[licks2nite]

Toronto and Montreal were the places. Every other city and province were looked to supply the raw materials for manufacturing. Industry towns were set up in the 50 and 60s. They were all dying out by the early 90s. School systems in those places were set up for the the industry running the town. When the industry towns (pulp and paper, mining) shut down, the town died too.
Industry used to be set up by rivers or streams for transports and for dumping their waste. There are still areas in Canada that are extremely polluted because of past industry. Heavy industry in Canada is dead. No ship building. Its too expensive to put ships under Canadian Flag (maintenance and wages cutting into profits). Heavy industry used train tracks, how much of those tracks still operate. On the prairies there used to be miles of tracks and an grain storage (silo) in every town with tracks going by it. Now farmers truck over 50 miles to get it to a storage silo to an track to get their grain to market. This has more to do with how the infrastructure changed to truck.diesel transport and the use of trains for long hauling for specific cargos (mostly chemicals).

Thanks for your input here 80watts. You seem to be in agreement with the perspective and talking points that I've made in this thread. If enough talk about the points that have made here, Canadians can go some way in recovering Canada's birth right. Happy Canada Day everyone!

 

[licks2nite]

A prestige thing really, having an export manufacturing sector. To design and fabricate the components of something that everybody wants. A place for intellect to flourish honestly beyond coping with the disenfranchisement and creating fantasy of wealth out of exploiting environment, stripping natural resources and selling the land off for cultures that have already decimated parts of the world and made cesspits of their homelands. An intellect that thrives upon operating a cash register, tearing open boxes and stocking shelves, cutting each other's hair.

 

[licks2nite]

The Manitoba Ranger that stormed the grounds of Rideau Hall a few days ago is writing something about Canada becoming a communist dictatorship. Under a communist regime if you do anybody wrong you have no way to make reparation since you have nothing with which to make reparation. At the behest of the party everything is a privilege bestowed or withdrawn, whether that be billionaire all the way down to whether you get an anesthetic prior to surrendering a body organ. China's population is about 45 times that of Canada. Any imbalance of trade with Canada hardly affects China one way or the other whilst the smallest adjustment could greatly impact the Canadian economy. That's a price Canada pays for not having an export manufacturing sector and puts Canada in harm's way of the communist giant's whims and aspirations. In peace, the money that Canada spends overseas has to return to Canada and something has to be offered in exchange for what Canada purchased. When the Canadian population isn't producing a manufactured line of products to send away, something else has to be offered instead. Individually, most Canadians, the vast majority not producing anything have lost independence since something else provides and pays for the products that Canadians consume. Canadians live in the hypocrisy of stripped natural resources and claiming to do right by the environment. Canadians live in the hypocrisy of growing a population of oligarchs that grew wealthy off the sale of products that Canadians consume. Oligarchs that are beholden, for the sake of family left under a communist dictatorship, to provide information of Canada and Canadians and intelligence for that communist dictatorship. Canada that allows a segment of its population to come from a communist dictatorship wealthy enough to attend the best educational facilities in Canada, to find employment in the best paying careers in Canadian governments and business, to bid up the price of real estate to the point that the younger generation of two wage earning Canadians can't own a home without spending hours of their own time traveling some inordinate distance each way, each work day. A communist regime that that routinely exports deadly fentanyl to kill disenfranchised Canadians. So, now tell me if Canada is becoming a communist dictatorship.

 

[80watts]

Canada has mega mega resources, and we give it all away to be nice to other countries.
Tarsands- oil- plastics. plastics are still the future.
Mineral wealth - off the rocks.
Energy. tons of water ways. Nuclear is probably the way togo (unless your a tree hugger).
Pollution control- very sad, increase this and recycling of 100% of waste, including plastice, drywall, metals, electronics etc.
Law about what goes into products (like plastics to make it easier to recycle).
The problem in Canada is that there are monopolies for almost everything you can think of. Lots of middle man/companies which drive the price of stuff up.
Basic material things that should be cheap, are expensive. compare price in states and here. Factor in the exchange rate etc. its way too expensive for basic building materials if you want to manufacture something.
Skills at school are aimed at computer technology, not hands on like plumbing, carpentry, so loss of hand skills etc.

 

[licks2nite]

Canada has mega mega resources, and we give it all away to be nice to other countries.
Tarsands- oil- plastics. plastics are still the future.
Mineral wealth - off the rocks.
Energy. tons of water ways. Nuclear is probably the way togo (unless your a tree hugger).
Pollution control- very sad, increase this and recycling of 100% of waste, including plastice, drywall, metals, electronics etc.
Law about what goes into products (like plastics to make it easier to recycle).
The problem in Canada is that there are monopolies for almost everything you can think of. Lots of middle man/companies which drive the price of stuff up.
Basic material things that should be cheap, are expensive. compare price in states and here. Factor in the exchange rate etc. its way too expensive for basic building materials if you want to manufacture something.
Skills at school are aimed at computer technology, not hands on like plumbing, carpentry, so loss of hand skills etc.

Didn't quite understand what you were getting at here. In the opening line you say that Canada gives away resources to be "nice". I assume that you mean cheaply and I agree. With limited number of bidders for Canadian resources, Canadian resources go cheaply, particularly crude oil. Canada necessarily makes up in other ways. Such as underfunding NATO commitment, currently 1.2 percent of Canada's GDP (pre Covid) rather than 2.0 percent. I don't claim to be an economist just because I read the topic and I remain just a plebeian reading the Internet.

You go on to say that basic building materials in Canada are too expensive because of many middle men. By that you're referring to the price of cement, lumber, bricks, aggregate, metal. In Canada's depleted manufacturing sector I'd wonder if the bricks weren't imported and the metal. Building construction in Canada has a totally different meaning. The organic population growth in Canada is virtually zero. Any new construction in Canada, whether that be office towers, hotels, apartment blocks, shopping malls, water treatment, sewers, highways, just about anything is a result of immigration. If you don't mind my saying so, jacking up the price of construction with handling or middle men seems to be one of the few ways that Canada can bring back the Canadian money sent overseas for the myriad of consumer products that Canadians import and buy. Really, just another symptom of the slow motion train wreak that is a Canadian economy that long lost an export manufacturing sector.

 

[PierreCoeur]

A picture is worth a thousand words.....
View attachment 4351

How about this picture? https://ipolitics.ca/2015/04/19/no-matter-how-you-add-it-up-harpers-fiscal-record-is-a-catastrophe/