On one hand, Canada has an opportunity here to attract some of the world's best and brightest. Folks who would normally only accept Silicon Valley and Wall Street as their final destinations. Some of these can be convinced that Canada is a safer and saner place for their families. Even getting 1-2% of the top talent that normally heads that way would be substantially beneficial to our economy.
Yes.
On the other hand, an America that is increasingly focused inward on its own problems, creates a substantial void that authoritarian regimes in places like China and Russia, will seek to exploit. We need to be ready to counter a lot of this, without the unlimited assistance that the US usually provides to its allies. This would mean, for example, carrying a multiple of the burdens we usually carry in conflicts like Ukraine.
I'm not convinced the U.S. is about to pull back its military or military spend in a big way from global affairs. That would happen if the U.S. devolved into Civil War or the like but again, I think that's as yet an unlikely outcome. Were that to unfold our problem would be to our immediate south and not any void left by the U.S. overseas.
Whether it is a fear of acknowledging the truth or fear of offending our American neighbours, there seems to be very little discussion on what the turmoil in the US means for Canada and how we can both prepare for it, and make the best of it. Not talking about what it means for us, beyond just the fear of that instability coming north (a risk I don't buy) is doing ourselves a disservice. We need to get moving.
I agree; though I'm not sure what the discussion from government would look like, in the open.
In lieu of that.........here's a quick thought or two from me.........
In so far as the goal would be, as noted above, to gain a larger share of high-value immigrants (education/wealth), and perhaps investment capital as well.............
1) I would make Contraception coverage the very first component of Pharmacare and rush that out the door in the next 60 days. It serves as a useful point of contrast, a symbolic statement, it literally pays for itself
as proven in studies, and, is in fact, remarkably cheap. The full cost for a of Canada would be ~600M per year (assumes no deductibles/co-pays, covers all forms, pill/IUD etc.)
The speech write itself "Canada as a nation prioritize the right of women to govern their own bodies and reproductive rights, and as such we take this important step forward to make it easier for women of all socio-economic backgrounds
to make the choices that work for them and their families"
Done quickly, and a bit loudly, this would get press in the U.S. too (which has spillover effects in terms of global publicity).
It actually works even better when Trudeau gives a slightly cheeky denial that this is in any way a direct reaction to events in the U.S.
2) We need to carefully examine our weaknesses in attracting and retaining talent; I won't seek to provide a comprehensive list, but I will afford a few items.
- As ever, foreign credential recognition is not what it needs to be we need to expediently review dozens of universities/programs around the world and determine where those credentials should more or less be recognized as equivalent to
Canadian, as-of-right.
- Where Canadian experience is legitimate/unavoidable requirement we need to have a much larger pipeline of spots of on offer to prospective immigrants to get that experience the moment they set foot on Canadian soil. If we admit you because you are a doctor we should have your residence/supervised rotation lined up for you before you get here. etc.
- We are not competitive in graduate-level student compensation/grants. We must increase those, substantially. They don't need to match the U.S. (given lower tuitions here) but should be much closer than we are; we also
require greater numbers of research/student places at the graduate level and additional supporting grants.
- We need to continue to substantially increase the size of our VC (venture capital) markets; that's an important consideration for some entrepreneurs.
- We really need to strongarm/buy-off the provinces to move to a single capital market regulatory regime
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I think its also important not to blindly look only at the U.S. as a comparator. Canada ranks very low on work-life balance, we lose people to Australia over this simple matter all the time. Its an illustration of where the minimum standard
(in this case paid vacation) has more impact that you think. Because while many/most high value immigrants will get a better than minimum employment offer; the median offer is often determined by the entry-level offer. So in Australia one gets at least 4 weeks paid vacation as opposed to 2 in most of Canada. This result in good value, new employee offer of 5 weeks paid vacation where in Canada it would get you 3 weeks. That difference can be a key selling feature.
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Umm, housing costs vs income. We know there's a problem here, most acute in Toronto/Vancouver, we need to be mindful that it effects those already here; but it also affects our attractiveness globally in some measure.
This is not just a housing cost story, its an income-growth story; we need more of the latter.