Keeping it Real…

First of all, I don’t think Donald Trump is that dumb: I predict, if there’s no deal with Canada before Wednesday’s “deadline”, the US President will extend the date for his threatened new tariffs on Canada.

BUT, since the Mad Hatter indeed seems to be mad, in every definition of the word, Canada must be prepared to strike back!

Three times Prime Minister Mark Carney has previously dropped retaliatory Canadian moves (on consumer goods, digital media, the Gordie Howe funding agreement) … and it got Canada NOTHING in return: US tariffs on Canadian products remained.

Enough is enough!

Canadians are a peaceful people; most of us still like most of our American neighbours; yearn for a return to the days when the US was a friend, partner and ally … but at some point, if ANY foreign leader hurls insults at our country, demeans its sovereignty and imposes crippling 50% tariffs on $30 Billion of our exports … Canada MUST hit back.

And Carney seems to agree.

Not by imposing a larger export tax on Canadian oil, natural gas or electricity heading south … but on US exports heading north.

US government figures show Canadians bought $336 Billion worth of US goods in 2025 and $89 Billion in US services; Canada is the top customer for 34 US states; and 1.4 Million US jobs depend on Canadian trade.

A report prepared for the  Canadian American Business Council estimates that if the Canada US Mexico (CUSMA) trade agreement ends, 214,000 American and 102,000 Canadian jobs would be lost. 

“The impacts also extend beyond jobs. According to the report’s estimates, the breakdown scenario would impact the GDP of both countries, costing the U.S. economy $1.04 trillion US and costing Canada $271 billion Cdn by 2035,” the CBC reported last week. (You can see the full report here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/trade-renegotiation-impact-report-9.7303374.

Imposing the 50% tariff on Canada would hurt Canadian exporters, but ALSO impact the US economy TERRIBLY … just before the US midterms … so that’s why I believe Trump will back off.

But knowing the Mad Hatter, the PM did ask Canada’s Premiers recently for private recommendations on US products to hit IF Trump carries out his threat.

Bravo!

Canada MUST act … even if tariffs imposed on Canada-bound US products make them more costly north of the border. (Hopefully, their suggestions highlight products (foods, goods) also available here from friendlier and competitive non-tariffed countries.)

For Canada to do NOTHING would only encourage Trump to bully us even more.

As BC Premier David Eby noted this week, US tariffs on Canadian lumber alone already approach 45% … HIGHER than the US charges on lumber imports from Europe or even Russia!

“The softwood lumber sector is bigger than auto parts and steel combined in terms of the Canadian economy and it needs to be front and center at the table,” Eby said Friday.

And I agree with him that not a drop of US alcoholic products should be restored on BC (or Canadian) store shelves until the lumber dispute is settled. Steel, aluminum, auto trade, energy too.

Canadians do NOT want a trade war with the US.

Let’s hope a new fair trade deal is soon agreed to, but, as Carney has said, no deal is better than a bad deal.

And if Trump goes ahead with another attack … this time, Canada MUST fight back!

Harv Oberfeld

🇨🇦🇨🇦Check the labels! BUY CANADIAN!🇨🇦🇨🇦

(Follow @harveyoberfeld on “X” for FREE First Alerts to new postings on this Blog.)

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The most obvious symptom that a public health system is itself in critical condition is when the Emergency Department of a hospital is shut down!

The Emergency Department! Closed!

Just imagine how the chances of a tragic outcome increase if someone suffers a heart attack, a stroke or a terrible accident … and a closed Emergency Department requires a further journey of a half-hour or an hour or even more to the next closest hospital.

In BC, that terrible, frightening reality is now happening far too often … even in the Lower Mainland, not just smaller, remote communities.

And that’s on top of BC’s already notorious reputation for its lack of family doctors, long wait times to see a specialist and worse, waiting months or more to have surgery, if needed.

The BC government says it is making major efforts to improve ALL those situations. In fact, a few weeks ago, the Provincial Health Services Authority listed a job posting for a new Director of Business Planning … offering a salary range of $118,000 to $171,000 a year.

“This particular role will support BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), the Genome Sciences Centre (GSC), and the Research programs within PHSA. The Director, Business Planning works as a strategic business partner with the program’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Medical Officer and other senior executives within the program as well as PHSA executives to oversee plans and strategies to achieve organizational goals,” the job posting says.

“The Director, Business Planning is customer focused and interacts at the most senior levels of the health authority recognizing and balancing organization-wide and agency perspectives.” (You can read the full posting here: https://jobs.phsa.ca/job/director-business-planning.)

The job is administrative, developing annual and multi-year budgets, overseeing preparation of financial statements, identifying performance measures, and ensuring the agency meets its financial goals etc.

The qualifications needed for the successful applicant: “A level of education, training and experience equivalent to a professional accounting designation (CMA, CGA, or CA) or a Masters Degree in Business Administration or a related field of study plus a minimum of twelve (12) years of progressively senior management experience within a large complex multi-site organization.”

Seems quite normal. An experienced, qualified professional top level manager to improve the Provincial Health Services Authority delivery of services for British Columbians.

ALL British Columbians!

BUT this is BC … under the NDP: so there’s another bizarre job requirement:

“Demonstrated knowledge of the historic and ongoing impacts of settler colonialism on Indigenous Peoples in social and health contexts, including supported by significant knowledge of Indigenous-specific mandates, including clear understanding of and commitment to eradicate Indigenous-specific racism and discrimination and embed Indigenous Cultural Safety and Humility. Demonstrated knowledge of the historic and ongoing impacts of settler colonialism and systemic racism on Indigenous Peoples within social and health contexts, underpinned by significant expertise in Indigenous-specific mandates. This includes a clear understanding of and commitment to eradicating Indigenous-specific racism and discrimination. Additionally, it involves embedding Indigenous Cultural Safety and Humility, and an advanced expertise and unwavering dedication to engaging with diversity, centering equity, and advancing inclusion.”

What the hell has any of that got to do with hiring a competent financial administrative expert?

And there are more restrictions on who will be hired:

“Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of legislative obligations and provincial commitments within Business Planning contexts found in the foundational documents including Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action (2015), In Plain Sight (2020), BC’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (2019), United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Reclaiming Power and Place Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls Calls for Justice (2019), the Declaration Act Action Plan and Remembering Keegan: A First Nations Case Study, Anti-Racism Data Act, BC Human Rights Code – and how they intersect across the health care system.”

There’s DRIPA again!!! (So much for the NDP amending, reducing, eliminating the damage DRIPA has wrought on BC … or the further dangers it poses.)

Plus, if the NDP government wants to add historical cultural sensitivities/knowledge to job hirings … why not include requirements that any applicant also:

Demonstrate detailed knowledge of how BC and Canada treated early Chinese immigrants; seized properties and incarcerated Japanese Canadians during World War II; turned away Jewish Holocaust refugees, sending many to their deaths; refused to land hundreds of passengers from India aboard the Komagatu Maru in 1914; and, how BC and Canada for decades failed to recognize the trauma suffered by all the relations of those 2 million innocent civilians murdered in Cambodia in the 1970s or in the Armenian genocide by Turkish forces from 1915-17?

The bottom line, of course, is that … by adding political and ideological restrictions to the job posting …I suspect the NDP government will turn off the top qualified, but non-partisan, non-ideologically driven experts/candidates available.

And BC’s loss … once again … will be Ontario’s, Alberta’s and even the Maritimes’ gain.

No wonder health care in BC is in such a mess!!!

Harv Oberfeld

🇨🇦🇨🇦Support Canadian businesses/workers. BUY CANADIAN!🇨🇦🇨🇦

(Follow @harveyoberfeld.ca on “X” for FREE First Alerts to new postings on this Blog.)

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