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Comment by digianarchist | Hacker News Reader

Absolutely. Canada for example should not be shipping lumber and oil to the United States for further refinement. It should be processed domestically.

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Canada and the US are long time allies and should be able to benefit from eachother without much hesitation. China is an adversary, big difference in posture.

Canada and the US are no longer allies.

Unfortunately it's impossible to tell if they are de facto allies, because on the one hand they very much still are de jure still allies, and on the other all the stuff Trump is saying and doing.

It’s either allies or you get invaded by us. You have no nukes. This isn’t the Micheal Moore fantasy of “Canadian bacon” where it’s all some funny post 90s joke: Trump hates Canadians and will use military force to annex them if he perceives that it will go well.

I fully, 100% expect this to happen, at least to Greenland and a real chance of this happening to Canada.

Security allies? Sure. Economic allies? I don't think that has been the case for a long time. Even before Trump's second term.

Canada and the US have been to court multiple times over NAFTA violations (sometimes Canada is at fault admittedly).

https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-com...

Why would that be better? Comparative advantage is real.

1. Jobs.

2. Profits.

3. Refined products can be exported to countries that don't have refinement capabilities. Not just the US and China. This gives Canada better trade leverage.

4. Security. A big one that's emerged in the last few weeks.

I don't see either Poilievre or Carney talking about this which is disappointing but not unexpected.

Do you not believe in the theory of competitive advantage? The tradeoff is higher prices, do you think that doesn't matter?

What is the competitive advantage here? That refinement exists in the United States and not Canada? That was a political choice made by Canadian politicians.

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