Sick at home, I must have lost a few levels of my patience. Maybe it's the glimmer of green power now that Saskatchewan has won the Grey Cup, after the last time of which occurrence my Sask roomie at university gave us all a lifetime's worth of the various ways to display your bombastic Rider Pride. Anyway, in this supersensitive condition, one is easily irritated:
The Ontario and Manitoba governments are working to make it easier for travellers to visit the United States without a passport, but Canadians shouldn't get the wrong message and consider it an invitation to shop more in border cities, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says. Mr. McGuinty met yesterday with Manitoba Premier Gary Doer to discuss new high-tech driver's licences the provinces are working on, which will contain citizenship data and could be used in place of passports at the border.First, my local economy in a border town includes the other side. I spend there with reason and have done so for years - get me the products at those prices and I am happy to buy in Canada. Second, this isn't PEI with its prohibitive departure fees and intimidating ads meant to keep local retailers on life support - this is the biggest economic engine in the country. If I save a buck there, I still spend it here. Third, since when is this a company town with the employed required to buy from the approved outlet? Is there similar encouragement for retailers to drop their prices? Finally, when did the competitive market stop being the mechanism by which excellence is honed. And post-ultimately, did we turn away US dollars when there was a 62 cent dollar? Hardly.Streamlining the process to cross into the United States might tempt more people into shopping stateside, but Mr. McGuinty said shoppers should ignore the lure of irresistible deals and support their local economy. "My preference obviously is that Ontarians shop locally - it's better for the environment, it saves them time and it's good for the local economy," he said.
I do go on. I should be more patient. After all, there are likely "executives and judges" involved so I should not trust myself. Excuse me as I go to find my place.
Comments
Ben (The Tiger) - November 26, 2007 6:56 pm
Oh, that's just McGuinty being McGuinty. He doesn't have the concept of "my business, not the government's" in him.
Anyway, could be worse. We could be back in the days of exchange controls, when the state controlled how much money you could take out of the country with you. Now we just have political blowhards whom we can ignore at will.
ry - November 27, 2007 12:54 am
Well, if'n you NOrtherners(or we Southerners) had your immigration and visitation laws in synch with us(or we with you) wouldn't be much of a problem to cross the border at all. BUt noooooo. One of us has to have more stringent rules that the otehr refuses to adopt, thereby creating an exploit of security. THanks a lot.
On the spend in US vs. spend in CAN argument: what's this guy's beef really? Buy here, buy there, it's all(75% at least) made in CHina anyways. TPM BArnett needs to take a cluebat upside this guys head. (economic)GLobalism is good. As China gets more and more involved in teh economy outside her borders She starts taking on our rules and our concerns(new laws on product safety are coming and there's been a huge upswell in grass roots and official concerns and actions about environmental issues there, because they have contact with we Gwailoa).
Get well soon, Sir Baldyheed.