Reply #5: Not a Canadian, just work here.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

The international boundary between Canada and the US is a geographic technicality cut across a significantly unpopulated frontier along a convenient line. The economic advantages Canada has over the US come not out of exploitive labor practices, lax environmental laws or unfair subsidies. They come out of the United States ourselves being too lazy, stupid and selfish to create a workable healthcare system.

Canada is the best trading partner you could ask for, but for Canada we are also very much replaceable. They can sell their natural resources to anybody and can raise investment anywhere.

The problem with US protectionist policies is they completely ignore the principle of reciprocity which has governed international relations since the dawn of the state and the cost of the blowback of many US protectionist measures is incalculable. Take for instance the latest pissing contest between the US and Canada. The ALPA complained to the administration about Air Canada flying hockey teams around the US on charter flights in the name of fighting cabotage. Which is frankly a non-issue to start with but that is another story and charter flights have been treated differently forever.

So the DOT pulls the plug on Air Canada hockey team charters, Canada immediately retaliates. But this is where things get stupid - in the name of fighting Air Canada flying around hockey teams the retaliation has smacked down the US air charter industry who just got shut out of flying within Canada under a similar understanding.

Blowback has a multiplier effect as cabotage, an issue that just doesn't matter to begin with and applies to an infinitesimal number flights by a single airline all of the sudden has US charter operations shitting themselves as the retaliation smacks all of them and they didn't even have anything to do with the original complaint that was irrelevant to start with.

The US needs one trade policy for countries like Canada, the EU members, Japan etc. another for China and another still for developing countries who need a leg up.

Smacking our closest allies only comes right back to us and three times as hard.