Allow me to be momentarily and patriotically triumphalist as I peruse these two recent headlines:
(U.S.) SENATE EXPECTED TO PASS DEBT PLAN TO AVERT DEFAULT (Bloomberg News, today)
MOODY’S PRAISES CANADA’S RESILIENCY, RENEWS TRIPLE-A RATING (The Globe and Mail, Friday)
Yes, it’s true, we in the True north are solvent, creditworthy and sane, and the Americans are facing debt downgrades, can’t figure out how to run their ragged republic, and have know-nothing “Tea Party” noobs actually elected to office.
As we all know, the Tea Partiers today aren’t the same traitorous bunch that went crazy and violent  in the 1770s, persecuted our ancestors and sent them fleeing as Loyalists to form the core of Canada. But they’re similarly extreme and scarily stupid. They were willing to push their own country into technical insolvency to make the point that they don’t like paying taxes, regardless of the consequences. Both times.
So, to match the Tea Party triumphalism today over the moderates of both the Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S., allow me to offer these glorious images from Canadian history as an antidote:
There they are, arguably the two greatest heroes of Canadian history, both of who fell in 1812 fighting off American onslaughts at impossible odds only 30 years after the end of the American Revolution.
Yes, sometimes we do things right in Canada, and we can all feel good about that. So, with us going into the bicentenary of the War of 1812, let’s hope we can again – against the odds – stave off disaster and stay above the ugly financial meltdowns that are plaguing our former foes to the south and the fine folks of the Eurozone.
Because as much as it feels good to read headlines like that in the Globe on Friday, and as comfy as it is to fell smug looking at the lunacy in the U.S. political arena, and as amusing as it is to contemplate the feats of reality-denial occurring in the Eurozone, our fate is uncomfortably tied to the outcomes in those areas.
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Pork doing the right thing
Manitoba’s pork industry gives the province a lot to be proud of.
We are exporters. Most of the sales and value of our crops and livestock are based on exports and export-based prices, so as sound as our banks are, as non-insane as our politicians still seem to be, and as strong as our commodity-based economy seems to be today, it ain’t going to mean much if the U.S. implodes, the Euro blows up, and other parts of the world (Hello China!!) get sucked down with them.
Without the U.S. to buy our pork, we would be glutted. Without booming Chinese demand, canola would become painfully cheap. Without continually increasing worldwide demand for pulses, oilseeds and cereals – as well as all our other commodities – our relative stability isn’t going to continue.
So we can feel good about Canada and its present stability and prosperity, and we can afford to look down our noses at least a little at the yanks and the Euros, but we’d better be praying that saner heads prevail in the U.S. as its financial crisis goes on, and that a more reality-based mentality takes over in the Eurozone.
It won’t be much fun to be among the world’s leading exporters if no one can afford to import our stuff.
