The wide-ranging application of tariffs by the United States, imposed unilaterally by President Donald Trump, will radically restructure 80 years of international trade that was engineered by the Bretton Woods Agreement following the end of World War II. Trump’s actions will have a plethora of consequences, but the economic strategy is “madness”, a term used by Justin Wolfers, a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan (The Cost of Living, CBC Radio, April 6, 2025).
Continue reading The Quadra Project: Globalization – Part 2Tag Archives: Donald Trump
The Quadra Project: Globalization – Part 1
Peter Zeihan, in his 2022 book, The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization, offers an insightful and credible explanation for the globalization process that affects us all, and is becoming increasingly relevant because of global economic, political and environmental factors. Although his book might exaggerate the importance of America, his ideas deserve our attention because they provide a framework for illuminating other related subjects.
At the end of World War II, in 1945, the world was in a political and economic mess. Although Germany and Japan had been defeated, most of the rest of the world had been heavily damaged by the conflict. In the East, an imperial Japan was in ruin, as was China after the Japanese invasion of its northern territories. In Europe, Germany, too, was in ruin. Great Britain, Italy, France, Russia and their many adjacent countries had been heavily damaged.
Continue reading The Quadra Project: Globalization – Part 1
Liberal Candidate Jennifer Lash visits Cortes Island
More island residents turned out to hear Liberal candidate Jennifer Lash than could fit into the Pioneer Room at Mansons Hall. Half a dozen were looking on from the hallway. The Wednesday April 9 event was co-sponsored by the Cortes Island Seniors Society and Cortes Island Climate Action Committee.
Kairn Carrington, the MC, began, “I met Jen 25 years ago.”
To which Lash responded, “I don’t remember life before Kairn.”
Kairn Carrington: Yeah, it was a long, long time ago. I was working at Greenpeace on forests and Jen wanted to really take on marine conservation in Canada in a big way. So she started an organization called Living Ocean Society, which became Canada’s leading marine conservation organization.She led that and really spearheaded the notion of marine conservation in Canada. So we worked alongside each other. I was the forest and she was the fish, for some decades.”
Continue reading Liberal Candidate Jennifer Lash visits Cortes Island
The feds raised doubts about a climate scientist’s LNG research; He says they sounded like fossil fuel lobbyists
By Carl Meyer & Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporters
Edward Burrier chuckled as he told his colleagues what he thought about an academic paper written by a prominent U.S. climate scientist.
Burrier, a director of public policy at Canadian fossil fuel giant TC Energy, said the study was largely to blame for public skepticism about whether liquefied natural gas (LNG) is as environmentally friendly as the oil and gas industry claims.
“One quoted study that drove a lot of this initial activism … said that LNG is worse than coal,” Burrier said.
Continue reading The feds raised doubts about a climate scientist’s LNG research; He says they sounded like fossil fuel lobbyists
There is no easy way for Canada to de-escalate the trade war
By John Woodside, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
As a federal election kicks off, the trade war with the U.S. is casting a long shadow over voters’ choices, and whoever forms the next government will have the tall order of trying to draw this conflict to a close.
“President Trump wants to break us so America can own us,” said Liberal Leader Mark Carney at a campaign stop in Gander, NL on Monday. “We are over the shock of betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons. We have to look out for ourselves.”
International trade experts interviewed by Canada’s National Observer say that will be much easier said than done. The two economies are more integrated than ever before, and President Donald Trump’s chaotic governing style makes it extremely difficult to know how to even begin to unravel this dispute.
Continue reading There is no easy way for Canada to de-escalate the trade war