Posted on 07/17/2011 8:04:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
BUCKHORN, Ontario – Candy Penny and her husband have owned their novelty shop here just long enough to not know what it was like when American tourists flooded this small Peterborough County town in Canada’s “cottage country.”
“I understand that, before the recession, every other license plate in town was from a different (American) state,” said Penny, a Michigan native who moved here when she married a Canadian.
“Between that and the spike of gas prices in 2008 and again this summer, and the required passports to cross the border, our main business is Canadian.”
Her shop is in a century-old wooden church. It is artfully arranged with birdhouses, beach towels, candles, charming retro signs of the Kawartha Lakes, and moose- and deer-antler cottage décor. “And it is pretty good business, at that,” she said.
That is because, unlike its Yankee neighbor, Canada has a robust economy.
Buckhorn is bustling. The parking lot of the provincial liquor store was so full that cars spilled onto both sides of the narrow two-lane road; the Foodland’s lot also was full, forcing shoppers to create spots along a slope down to Buckhorn Lake.
Teddy’s Antiques shop overflowed, and the Olde Icehouse bar’s outdoor seating had a long wait for lunch.
As America’s woeful economy and high unemployment reflect its increasingly pessimistic outlook, things look better up here.
Canada’s economy is doing better for several reasons, says Matthew Lebo, political science professor at Stony Brook University in New York.
It has “a well-regulated banking system, which prevented banks from taking excessive risks with depositors’ money and from borrowing based on assets of dubious value,” he explained. So it had no need for a public bail-out of private companies that took bad risks.
Lebo said Canada’s diverse population and influx of educated, entrepreneurial immigrants over the last 30 years has led to a constant supply of innovation and new businesses.
It also did not have a housing bubble, says former Federal Reserve governor Larry Lindsey, “So, therefore, no crash.”
Canada’s housing sector has been a continuous bright spot, taking the country out of recession swiftly; the U.S. housing market remains abysmal, contributing to a faltering economy and no job growth.
“They are also just booming with everything that surrounds the energy industry,” said Lindsey.
According to Lebo, “Canada is really 13 economies, mostly energy resource-based except for the Windsor-Quebec corridor, where heavy industry and … financial and business sectors are concentrated.”
And here’s a blow: More cars are made in Ontario than in Michigan, he said.
Canadian provinces are more economically independent than U.S. states, Lebo said, so they have greater power over their economies, health and education systems.
One of the things the United States can do to keep up with Canada is to unleash our natural resources, says John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute.
He said shale natural gas has immense potential for the U.S. energy industry.
“What they are doing in Canada with their energy recourses in incredible,” he said. “We have that same potential … thanks to technological advances in hydraulic fracturing.”
Instead, Canada is America’s largest supplier of oil and natural gas.
Perhaps we can learn from Canada’s example of developing its oil, natural gas, uranium and hydropower resources, generating jobs and improving its trade balance.
Along with a booming economy comes booming prices, of course: A pound of bacon here costs double its U.S. price, a pint of blueberries is triple the U.S. cost – and if you want a flimsy bag for groceries, “it’s five cents a bag,” says a cashier.
“Americans don't typically like to hear that, especially if they are stocking their cottages with supplies,” she said, sympathetically.
Prices at the gas pump are equally painful; the average last week was $1.25 a liter. With roughly four liters to the gallon, you’re staring at $5 a gallon.
A resort owner near Sandy Lake said he really felt the pinch when both countries were in the beginning of recession in 2007: “Cottages sat vacant for too long.”
This year is back to normal, he said. “All of my cottages are booked through August” – although with a lot fewer Americans.
They’d better start fortifying their border. I predict even the humblest of Canadians will soon have lily-white yankee domestic servants as status symbols.
Just don’t get sick
I’m gonna go mow me some metric grass.
Our crises were caused by those who purport to want to fix them. Whether or not they were deliberate or if it was just the byproduct of their stupidity has not yet been fully determined.
Because the safety valve to the south is about to clog. Canadians who can afford it have always gone to the U.S. for medical care when denied care by health Canada. When ObamaCare passed it was seen a future bonaza for Central American countries, where doctors would set up clinics catering to wealthy North American who could afford the freight. The care will be basically the same as any American Hospital today, White American professionals and Central American staff.
I’d move to Alberta in a heartbeat, they’re about as conservative as Texas over there.
Because the safety valve to the south is about to clog. Canadians who can afford it have always gone to the U.S. for medical care when denied care by health Canada. When ObamaCare passed it was seen a future bonaza for Central American countries, where doctors would set up clinics catering to wealthy North American who could afford the freight. The care will be basically the same as any American Hospital today, White American professionals and Central American staff.
Will you get your next hip replacement in Belize. Likely so.
Yeah, but that's just Canadian money....
What? 1 Canadian dollar = 1.05 US Dollars? Well I, for one, welcome our new Canadian overlords.
“Because the safety valve to the south is about to clog. Canadians who can afford it have always gone to the U.S. for medical care when denied care by health Canada. When ObamaCare passed it was seen a future bonaza for Central American countries, where doctors would set up clinics catering to wealthy North American who could afford the freight. The care will be basically the same as any American Hospital today, White American professionals and Central American staff.”
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Medical tourism has largely bypassed Central America. Most of it is in places like India, Thailand and the Philippines.
More doctors there and better infrastructure (in the big cities, at least) and rule of law, plus, the airfare difference is pretty trivial.
As ObamaCare tightens its clutches, the only way for a doctor to be able to make a decent living is going to be outside of U.S. jurisdiction.
I’ve been reading that Canada has been slowly loosening its grip on its own doctors and just starting to allow quasi-legal privatized care. There is also the possibility that our own Indian rez’s might branch into the hospital industry now that gambling is being scuttled by the shitty economy.
Two notes: when my daughter had complications from a tonsilectomy the attending surgeon was an Indian immigrant, with a delightful bedside manner, who projected a cool confidence and bespoke competence. The perfect person for the job at hand. He must have known his business, she came out fine.
I remember reading in the Toronto Globe and Mail an op-ed by a guy who needed an MRI and would have had to wait a couple of weeks. His brother-in-law was a vet and he gave him an MRI and was able to tell him that he didn’t need to go to Buffalo to seek immediate attention. Something is wrong when your cat can get an MRI on demand and you have to wait three weeks. Rationing by queue sucks.
Vancouver has an immense housing bubble which hasn't really started to deflate yet.
They can try to spin this any way they want, but the bottom line is this: If your country is mining and selling hydrocarbon products you are much more likely to be doing well than countries that do not.
As Steve Forbes pointed out just earlier today on Fox Business, two areas of medicine here in America prove that privatization leads to better, cheaper care: Lasik eye surgery and veterinary care.
Both are (usually) not covered by insurance and both have made immense advancements very quickly.
Yup, there are more MRI machines for pets in the U.S. than for humans in Canada.
But, but-but Obama saved the US auto industry!
Pets in Canada get MRIs more quickly and easily than people.
No mention in the article that all this because we have adults in charge of the country and not the Fiberals or the NDP commies...
The only thing this resident of Canada wants for the US is to right the listing ship. I only wish the best for America because that helps Americans and everyone else beyond its borders. I have not visited the US in quite some time now but I hope to when the 0 departs.
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