HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1996-11-06, Page 5International Scene
By Raymond Canon
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1996 PAGE 5.
Talk about
a Newfie
joke!
First Newfoundlander: Did you hear that
Quebec wants to leave Canada?
Second Newfoundlander: Why that would
be fine, b'y.
First Newfoundlander: Fine? Why do you
think it would be fine?
Second Newfoundlander: It'll cut eight
hours off the drive to Toronto, my son.
Poor old Newfies. For decades they've
been the butt of our jokes in Canada. And
just when it looked like they might finally be
gaining some respect, we find out about the
Churchill Falls Hydroelectric deal.
The deal, if we can call it that, works like
this. The Province of Quebec lends the
Province of Newfoundland money to dam
Churchill Falls, in Labrador. In return,
Newfoundland allows Quebec to buy all the
electricity she wants at bargain-basement
prices. Naturally, Quebec scoops it up by the
megawatt and flogs it to the States making
Success at last
Many people tend to forget that in the
realm of international commerce, Canada, or
any other country for that matter, is run
pretty much like a business. Income is
accomplished in a number of ways while
expenditures are incurred in a similar
number. The sum total of all these
operations is calculated under what is called
the current account of the balance of
payments.
Let's take a look at some of the items in
this account. First and foremost there is our
merchandise trade, that is, the amount of
goods which we sell to other countries
compared to what we buy from them. There
is also the tourist sector; how much we
spend in other countries as tourists in
comparison to what foreign tourists spend
here. Other sectors are transportation costs,
corporate earnings, interest paid on bonds
and finally, what we call invisibles.
If Aunt Trudi sends you some money for
your birthday and it has to be changed into
Canadian dollars, this is an invisible. If you
are working in Saudi Arabia and you send
some of your salary home each month, that
is also an invisible. In short, there are a
number of things that go into calculating just
how well we are doing in our current
account.
Well, how are we doing? The sad fact is
that up until now we have not been doing too
well. The bright spot has been the level of
our exports which are considerably more
than the amount of goods we import.
However, this is more than offset by one
simple fact. We have had to borrow so much
money to pay for our governments' deficits,
both federal and provincial, that we don't
billions of dollars in the process.
BUt it's okay, because the deal bnly goes to
the middle of the next century.
Talk about a Newfie Joke.
History has not been kind to
Newfoundland. Her first people, the
Beothucks were hunted to extermination by
early European settlers. A succession of
robber barons plundered her natural
resources, making sure the Island entered the
20th century barefoot and impoverished. In
mid-century, Premier Joey Smallwood
changed her face forever when he shut down
the Outports in a misguided attempt at
'modernization'.
Then the cod disappeared.
Now this.
And through it all Newfoundland
somehow manages to remain one of the most
vibrant, fascinating places in this whole
patchwork quilt we call Canada. It's a
magical garden, full of unforgettable
scenery, unbelievable wildlife — and people
who — how unCanadian — actually know who
they are.
No thanks to fate. Or the Newfoundland
government.
Next year, Newfoundland will celebrate
Cabot 500. A half a millennium ago, in
1497, John Cabot waded ashore at
Newfoundland and planted a British flag in
have enough savings in Canada. We have to
go to other countries and borrow the rest.
Naturally interest has to be paid on these
loans (in the form of bonds) and this interest
adds up to far more than we have been
earning in trade.
To make matters worse, Canadians like to
visit other countries, especially warm ones
and we have, unfortunately, a deficit in our
tourist sector as well. All of this adds up to
make the current account deficit pretty bad;
at times it has gone as high as $30 billion a
year, which has to be financed also.
It got so bad that there was even talk that
the International Monetary Fund would have
to come in and help us to get our financial
house in ordcr. That would have led to far
tougher economic measures than anything
either Ottawa or Queen's Park has seen fit to
hit us with so far.
Now comes the good news. Over the past
years we have bit the bullet firmly enough to
gradually turn this undesirable situation
around.
There are two main reasons for this. First
of all, there is the excellent trade surplus that
we have been building up, to the point where
it is currently over $30 billion a year.
In addition, our governments got the
message about the folly of too much deficit
financing and have accordingly gradually
reduced this deficit. Some provinces are
actually showing a surplus, with Alberta
leading the pack. (Ontario is still at the rear).
An increasingly smaller amount of money
has to be borrowed from foreign sources and
hence a reduction in the outflow of interest
payments.
To all this I might add, that due to the low
exchange rate of the Canadian dollar, we are
staying at home more while the number of
foreign visitors is increasing. This has
the stony, unforgiving beach. For the next
500 years Newfoundlanders, clung like
limpets to what Joey himself called "this old,
bald rock", lashed by the waves of the icy
North Atlantic.
And next year, Newfoundlanders will
celebrate it by waving American-made flags
at a British-made ship.
You'd think the Newfoundland Tourism
Department might have given the nod to a
local flagmaker for the 1,000 flags, 300
banners and 11,000 pennants they wanted
for Cabot 500.
And they would have liked to, they really
would. But there was this firm from Atlanta,
you see, which submitted a lower bid and...
Well, that's the Canadian way isn't it? .
As someone once said, a Canadian is
someone who drinks Brazilian coffee from
an English teacup and munches a French
pastry while sitting on Danish furniture,
having just come home from an Italian
movie in his German car. He picks up his
Japanese pen and writes to his Member of
Parliament to complain aboUt the American
takeover of the Canadian publishing
business. •
What next? Will the government sell
Mountie merchandising rights to Walt
Disney?
Naw. That could never happen.
helped us to all but wipe out the deficit in
the tourist sector.
Now the really good news! During the
second quarter of 1996 we actually had a
surplus of close to $2 billion in our current
account, the first time that this has happened
in well over a decade. All talk of the
International Monetary Fund has
disappeared and interest rates are currently
lower in Canada than they are in the United
States. Economic virtue does have its own
reward.
For me, both as an economist and a
Canadian, it is a real pleasure to be able to
report such good news. We have not had too
much lately but, if we can keep it up, our
economic future will be even brighter than it
is now.
A Final Thought
Keep you nose to the grindstone, your
shoulder to the wheel and your eye on the
ball. Now, try to work in that position.
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The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
Be glad you're needed
Sometimes I just can't believe how blinded
by selfishness we've become. We are so
caught up on how things will affect us, what
action or motivation will displace us, break
us or slight us, that we really have a dim
view of the bigger picture. There are other
people out there who would trade us places
in a minute.
Let's take the angry young doctors for
example. To help the under-serviced rural
areas, the government told new physicians
that in order to get OHIP numbers they will
have to set up their practices in rural areas
where doctors are in short supply. Late last
week the young does rejected the proposal.
After all, no one likes to be told where to go.
It's not just .undemocratic, it's rude and
completely unsympathetic to feelings.
However, ignoring the fact that this move
is sympathetic to the rural patients who need
the services of these physicians, there is one
other point they seem to be ignoring — in
this day and age, they should be damn glad
they're needed. Sure, democracy means that
no one has the right to plan our future for us.
But, in times like this, when you have
opportunitites that many don't, can't you give
a little?
My son is attending teacher's college this
year. You don't have to be an egghead to
comprehend what his dismal prospects are
upon graduation. And there's a few
thousands kids out there like him, who
would be ecstatic, I'm sure, to be told that
they will work — but it has to be in a rural
community.
There's a lot of frustration nowadays, just
trying to get a paycheque. College and
university students who have more than paid
their dues, are competing for jobs which
once could have been theirs for the asking
with a Grade 10 education. After years of
high tuition and hard work, they are
employed at minimum wage, in positions for
which they are very much overqualified.
And guess what, young doctors? Some of
them have even had to uproot themselves
from the rural lifestyle they so love, to find
employment in urbania.
When the issue of finding doctors for rural
areas was brought up at a health forum in
Wingham last -week, one taxpayer suggested
incentives would bring doctors here rather
than force. That pretty much sums up this
society. You want me to sacrifice, it had
better be worth my while.
As one of the idealistic parents who
spawned this defensive generation, I feel a
little guilty. Introspection makes me realize
that we wanted everything to be good for our
kids. We promised them the world and for
some years tried to accommodate. Children
of the 70s were indulged. The future was not
a concern, but a promise.
Then someone reneged.
We have reached a point where it's no
longer feasible to expect your hard work
gives you an inherent right to a chosen place
in society. There are a lot of deserving
individuals who are committed to making a
difference, but are not getting the
opportunity. No, it's not right to be forced
into a position, but at least before whining,
look at them and be grateful you have the
opportunity you worked for .
Arthur Black