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John Kerry
Jul. 31st, 2004 09:44 amOkay, American live journal friends, I'm a bit concerned.
I'm not crazy about Bush. His foreign policy has done a lot more harm than good, and when someone mentions the border, his first thought is Mexico.
I like John Kerry's foreign policy, he's anti-Bush and pro-peace, and all of this so far is good. The problem is his economic policy.
He wants to encourage American manufacturers to keep their business on American soil. This is okay, as far as it goes, but he's targeting areas like the automotive industry and steel industry. These are areas where Canada and the States are deeply intertwined, and protectionism of these industries will hurt Canada a great deal.
It's one thing to encourage American companies to keep new business in America; that doesn't hurt jobs elsewhere directly. But encouraging established industries to pull investments from other places to put them into America is not the best way to deal with your friends. Canada is already hurting from illegal subsidies of our softwood lumber, for example. (Illegal, in the sense that they contradict the free trade agreements in place already. Apparently, the States only wants free trade if America will profit by it. As soon as free trade starts to hurt them, they find a way around it.) If cars bought in Michigan are to be made entirely in Michigan, there are going to be problems.
I'd like to hear some views on this one - especially from the Americans on the livejournal list. I admit that if I were American right now, I'd be planning on voting Democrat, but this trend is worrisome. It is possible to protect American jobs without costing Canadian jobs. It doesn't look like Kerry is interested, though.
I'm not crazy about Bush. His foreign policy has done a lot more harm than good, and when someone mentions the border, his first thought is Mexico.
I like John Kerry's foreign policy, he's anti-Bush and pro-peace, and all of this so far is good. The problem is his economic policy.
He wants to encourage American manufacturers to keep their business on American soil. This is okay, as far as it goes, but he's targeting areas like the automotive industry and steel industry. These are areas where Canada and the States are deeply intertwined, and protectionism of these industries will hurt Canada a great deal.
It's one thing to encourage American companies to keep new business in America; that doesn't hurt jobs elsewhere directly. But encouraging established industries to pull investments from other places to put them into America is not the best way to deal with your friends. Canada is already hurting from illegal subsidies of our softwood lumber, for example. (Illegal, in the sense that they contradict the free trade agreements in place already. Apparently, the States only wants free trade if America will profit by it. As soon as free trade starts to hurt them, they find a way around it.) If cars bought in Michigan are to be made entirely in Michigan, there are going to be problems.
I'd like to hear some views on this one - especially from the Americans on the livejournal list. I admit that if I were American right now, I'd be planning on voting Democrat, but this trend is worrisome. It is possible to protect American jobs without costing Canadian jobs. It doesn't look like Kerry is interested, though.