‘Recall parliament’

Dear Editor:

An open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

 You have stated that we are in a trade war with the U.S., and from the limited information that you have elected to share with the public, it appears that we are.

You have mentioned retaliation using tariffs to the same value as those imposed upon us by Donald Trump’s administration.

This might make sense or perhaps not, but I would like to suggest that before you make decisions on tariffs and sectors, you recall parliament.

It seems to me from your words that we have a national emergency akin to a warlike situation and on this basis why would you not recall parliament?

Recalling parliament will allow the governing members and the opposition members to debate the way ahead and perhaps come up with alternatives that the governing members have not considered.

 Examples of possible short-term approaches, as opposed to the use of the inciteful, and retaliatory tariffs, might be:

– remove all inter-provincial tariffs to allow a greater market for individual provincial producers;

– remove GST on the internal utilization/consumption of Canadian produced aluminum, steel, softwood lumber and other sensitive commodities;

– apply the same to all foodstuffs produced by Canadian companies for consumption in Canada;

– purchase and store sensitive minerals from Canadian suppliers and provide worldwide to bidders from other democratic friendly countries, with whom we have no tariffs;

– provide other financial incentives for the purchase of Canadian products for which there are also U.S. suppliers;

– purchase the minimum number of F35 aircraft from the U.S., and then all other military aircraft from other suppliers with the requirement for building in Canada using Canadian raw materials;

– remove any current discounts on energy products that are sold to the U.S.;

– keep U.S. liquor off provincial shelves, as this seems to really hit a soft point;

– tighten government procurement requirements to prioritize Canadian and specifically non-U.S. purchases.

The above are the thoughts of just one humble citizen. Imagine how much more valuable they would be if you had input from the brilliant minds of all our federal parliamentarians.

Michael Lee,
Salem