Western Expresso

[bodaggin]

Pierre just announced Pre-Approved Trade Corridors. For Pipe, Rail, Wire, Road.

Basically exactly like I've been saying. Combined with the Pre-Approved "Shovel-Ready Zones" he announced prior, these are extremely strong trade and infrastructure policies. No mention of exact routes yet, but I suspect routes will be similar to this. As long as they pick nice flat topographic routes, I'm a supporter. Carney has a habit of copying Pierre's policies, so hopefully he copies these verbatim. To lock these policies in no matter who wins this election.

Because this practically eliminates red tape bullshit and land acquisition from large infrastructure projects. Making massively faster and cheaper construction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5qdzzAdoIQ

[EndIt]

Is opening interprovincial trade something the feds can actually do? It was my understanding the barriers are put up by the Provinces to protect provincial industries. Maybe the current "Team Canada" climate will grease the wheels, IDK.

In any event I wonder if Federalism will survive the Trump Era without some big changes. Even before any talk of tariffs, voters seemed to be clamouring for more federal control. Trudeau got raked over the coals for saying that housing is a provincial responsibility but strictly speaking he was right. No one's a stickler for constitutionalism in a crisis I guess lol.

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by EndIt

Is opening interprovincial trade something the feds can actually do? It was my understanding the barriers are put up by the Provinces to protect provincial industries. Maybe the current "Team Canada" climate will grease the wheels, IDK.

In any event I wonder if Federalism will survive the Trump Era without some big changes. Even before any talk of tariffs, voters seemed to be clamouring for more federal control. Trudeau got raked over the coals for saying that housing is a provincial responsibility but strictly speaking he was right. No one's a stickler for constitutionalism in a crisis I guess lol.

I think the interprovincial trade barriers are something both the Feds and the provinces have to agree to.

In the era of Trump I think there's renewed support for a strong federal presence everywhere except Alberta and Saskatchewan. Danielle Smith has pretty clearly stated her position: the federal government of Canada is her enemy and she will oppose anything that doesn't basically give full political and economic sovereignty to the province of Alberta. She's effectively become Canada's Quisling by aligning herself with the most noxious elements of American expansionism. It will be interesting to see if she survives the next provincial election, or whether enough of Alberta has turned traitor to keep her in.

Scott Moe is a quiet Trumper. In his heart of hearts I have no doubt he wants to join Smith-Quisling in bending the knee to the orange-skinned shit-gibbon down south, but he's afraid to state it clearly. He's probably hiding under a pile of blankets somewhere hopping it will all go away.

Don't even get me started on Poilievre. The man's a bipedal rat.

I realized typing this I sound pretty angry and bitter, and I am. Internal efforts to improve our country are one thing, internal efforts to wreck our country and submit to Napoleon Bone-spur are treason, pure and simple. Sorry, IMO there's no sideline on this one.

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by EndIt

Is opening interprovincial trade something the feds can actually do?

The whole "Inter-Provincial Trade Barrier" thing seems like a myth to me. Any time I ask anyone to quantify one of these so-called "barriers", no one can. They'll maybe use a liquor analogy, which is a tiny market. Or a trucking regulation analogy, which seems moot.

They're inferring that trucks can't ship nation-wide? Well that's false. Trucks currently already do. Daily. What barrier exists? And how do you remove this imaginary barrier?

National labor accreditations (doctors, nursing, engineers, etc) make sense. But this certainly doesn't make up the claimed $200B/yr of GDP these so-called barriers prevent. I dunno. It seems like everyone jumped on the trade-barrier bandwagon like sheep, without independently quantifying its actual existence first.

[zalf]

Even the tiniest bit of curiosity would have led you to this 2016 Senate report.

Yeah, booze and trucking gets talked about because they're intuitive to people. The bigger problems that are fixable, i.e. not due to geography, outlined in the report are deficient infrastructure and that regulatory paperwork is not portable between provinces.

As it stands, a Canadian business cannot straightforwardly operate outside of its home province, so it doesn't. And if it does decide to expand, it will preferentially do so into the EU or US because that's just as much of hurdle as expanding into Saskatchewan or Quebec. So Canadian businesses remain stunted.

[bodaggin]

Canada needs a Buyer Of Last Resort program.

Because every time an economic downturn hits (2008, Tariffs, etc), the same culprit industries are begging for bailouts over and over: Lumber, Steel, and Autos. And the same silly socialist response gets proposed every time: bailouts, bridge loans, and stronger EI payments. This is stupid. The following industries should be designated as strategically important:

STEEL: Steel is a commodity with an unlimited shelf life. So if a steel/aluminum sector shutdown looms, govt would step in to stockpile common steel SKU's to keep industry running. Coordinating with large steel consumers (shipbuilders, rail, civil) should also occur. Gov can sell into the market rebound.

LUMBER: Same thing. Lumber has an unlimited shelf life. Gov can begin stockpiling finished lumber (to a limit) to bridge a lumber downturn, selling into the rebound.

AUTO MAKERS: The Canadian army has desperately outdated light vehicles. Shutting down manufacturing during this shortage, when the Silverado and Roshel Senator are MADE IN CANADA, is insane. Gov agencies should have an emergency order on standby for these downturn instances. Drop $5B or $10B to redo the whole light army fleet. Pre-engineer the vehicle before hand and setup quickly pivotable production lines with industry, to bridge downturn events. Similar can happen in the aerospace sector.

Stop pissing away opportunity please, Canada.

[Authentic_City]

^Good ideas, in general. I wonder how much of the content/parts of the Silverados and Roshel Senators are imported from the US and/or Mexico, or if any assembly work is done across the border?

Not sure what vehicle this infographic is showing, but you get the idea.

[cllew]

Kansas City MO is the home for assembly of two Ford trucks, the F-150 and Ford Transit.

Kansas City KS is the home plant of the Chev Bold EV.

[FactaNV]

I believe Roshel is using F550s from the plant just down the road. It's a surprisingly integrated supply chain. The Senator MRAP has its issues as a light utility vehicle but it does seem like a cool platform.

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

^Good ideas, in general. I wonder how much of the content/parts of the Silverados and Roshel Senators are imported from the US and/or Mexico, or if any assembly work is done across the border?

Good points. Silverados are assembled in Oshawa. I'm not certain of component breakdowns for Silverado specifically, but overall auto sector is about 50% American. That is, 50% of the parts in a "Canadian-Made" vehicle, come from USA. Of course, all is not equal. Springs, stab bars, brake cables, etc, are easily pivotable parts. A diff assembly though, that's complex and hard to pivot. Anyways, use 50% American reliance as a current ballpark.

As for the Roshel Senator, it's based off an F550 platform (very common commercial chassis). F550 is made in Ohio and Kentucky. But Roshel's modifications are done in Canada. So gov can still buy an American Chassis for now. Or, if gov wants completely repatriated production for national security reasons, tell Ford to bring a small F550 line to Canada. If Ford doesn't want to, tell GM to expand their Canadian Silverado line into HD Chassis and give them all army orders to help sustain them. Roshel can adapt, they're aftermarket.

[cllew]

It's interesting that the City of Winnipeg Police did not want to spend and additional $9000 for its new Canadian made Armored Vehicle.

Instead they spend $384,450.00 with a company based in Phoenix, Arizona. As the tender was in late 2024 I didn't see any tariff cost information in it like the current tenders the city is sending out.

The last armored vehicle the WPD bought in 2016 was from a Canadian company in Ontario.

[Authentic_City]

Originally Posted by cllew

It's interesting that the City of Winnipeg Police did not want to spend and additional $9000 for its new Canadian made Armored Vehicle.

Instead they spend $384,450.00 with a company based in Phoenix, Arizona. As the tender was in late 2024 I didn't see any tariff cost information in it like the current tenders the city is sending out.

The last armored vehicle the WPD bought in 2016 was from a Canadian company in Ontario.

Yeesh, too bad they went with the US manufacturer.
The first one was the Gurkha, made by Terradyne in Newmarket.

https://www.terradyneinc.com/mpv.html

[FactaNV]

Bloody waste of money

[Authentic_City]

^true. But maybe better to waste the money in Canada, than in the US?

[bodaggin]

FactaNV, tell me about these military vehicles. Especially the Milverado, which Canada has about 1,000 units. What does the army use Milverado's for? A general gopher? Hauling munitions? It sounds kind of lightly armored? But it's not a combat vehicle of any kind to my knowledge?

I'm trying to understand the use case here. To understand proper inventory numbers.

[bomberjet]

Driving people around. It's a regular vehicle basically.

[FactaNV]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

FactaNV, tell me about these military vehicles. Especially the Milverado, which Canada has about 1,000 units. What does the army use Milverado's for? A general gopher? Hauling munitions? It sounds kind of lightly armored? But it's not a combat vehicle of any kind to my knowledge?

I'm trying to understand the use case here. To understand proper inventory numbers.

The "milverado" which we call the milcot is a non-operational admin vehicle. We use it as a runabout, for logistics on exercise, some driver training, etc. It's basically just an old Silverado painted green with a 24V power supply for comms and blackout lights. They're mainly used in the Reserves since we're extremely limited in our admin/logistics fleet. They're a lot less common in the RegF army units. They are not armed, armoured or deployable.

Useful trucks, but old and rickety and hopefully getting replaced under phase I of the LUV program this year.or next.

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by FactaNV

The "milverado" which we call the milcot is a non-operational admin vehicle. We use it as a runabout, for logistics on exercise, some driver training, etc.

Ok great, thanks. Order 5,000 LUV's (~$500m), and 30,000 Roshel Senators of varying platforms ($15-20B). Commas are in the correct locations.

[BlackDog204]

My Grandfather used to tell me how tough things were for him as a teenager growing up in the Great Depression. I recall thinking at the time "I sure hope that never happens in my lifetime."

Today is a day that will live in infamy. The Trump Administration has placed tariffs on nearly every country on Earth (except for Russia, Belarus, and N Korea). This will probably lead to a full-blown recession, and unless Trump rescinds the tariffs, will eventually morph into a full-blown depression, not seen since the 1930s.

Incidentally, the main reason for the Great Depression was....wait for it.....Tariffs! After the collapse of the stock market in 1929, the US Government implement harsh tariffs on many countries, to protect farmers and businesses in the United States. It failed miserably, and led to hundreds of millions of impoverished people Worldwide.

I pray the America people rise up, and overthrow not just Trump, but the whole Administration. This is the beginning of very hard times for us all.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

My Grandfather used to tell me how tough things were for him as a teenager growing up in the Great Depression. I recall thinking at the time "I sure hope that never happens in my lifetime."

Today is a day that will live in infamy. The Trump Administration has placed tariffs on nearly every country on Earth (except for Russia, Belarus, and N Korea). This will probably lead to a full-blown recession, and unless Trump rescinds the tariffs, will eventually morph into a full-blown depression, not seen since the 1930s.

Incidentally, the main reason for the Great Depression was....wait for it.....Tariffs! After the collapse of the stock market in 1929, the US Government implement harsh tariffs on many countries, to protect farmers and businesses in the United States. It failed miserably, and led to hundreds of millions of impoverished people Worldwide.

I pray the America people rise up, and overthrow not just Trump, but the whole Administration. This is the beginning of very hard times for us all.

It seems the US congress actually has the power to stop all Trump's tariffs if they wanted to by taking back that authority. It's more likely though that a depression will be a hard lesson for Americans, and a hard reset for the economy if it reaches rock bottom. At present no one is expecting that, but things have a way of snowballing.