Are Canadians safe in America? Probably NOT!

by Political Contributor

I can remember the first time that someone said to me that Canada is like the 51st state. It was probably over FIFTY years ago. It was rhetorical then and it’s rhetorical now.

But what did it mean? When I heard it I wasn’t insulted. America has a lot going for it. Canadians are well aware of their neighbours and friends to the south but Americans don’t know anything about Canadians.

And now we have somebody with the biggest microphone on the planet falsely claiming that Canadians have been “ripping off” Americans for years and Americans have to fight back. This comment doesn’t come from a businessman. A businessman understands how trade between countries works. It comes from a salesman working on commission, which is the worst business combination in history.

Americans are being told that Canadians are bad people and they are ripping Americans off – stealing from them. Not True!

Here’s an example. Let’s say that I have something that you want. So I offer to sell it to you. You pay me and I give you the thing you want. Then I notice that you have something I want. So I pay you something and you give me the thing I want.

Here’s where it gets confusing for some. Now you notice that I have something else that you want. But I’m not going to just hand it over to you for nothing. So you pay me and I give you the thing you want. You got two things and I got one thing and we both got paid. Nobody got ripped off. That’s called a trade imbalance.

That is what is happening in North America right now.

So why are Canadians not safe in America?

Because there’s going to be an American somewhere who’s going to see a Canadian visiting America as a bad person who is ripping them off. Yup. Because that’s what they are being told by someone who, they think, is giving them the facts when they’re really getting some terribly misguided distortion of a simple business transaction. Worse than that they are believing every word.*

So how is this American going to react to this lousy, rotten Canadian who is standing in front of him? I don’t think I want to be there to find out.

There’s one more important point. This imbalance is an American problem created by Americans. Americans are building their products in Canada because they want to. Probably because they are making more money by doing like that. Nobody is forcing American companies to go to Canada to build things.

As hard as Canada tries to say they have their own identity I don’t believe Canada has it’s own identity. It lives the American way. They buy and build American products. Everything from cars to fast food, to big box stores, discount stores, and lots more. But that doesn’t make it the 51st state.

Maybe this awakening is just what Canada needs.

*I got your nose.