Brookman: Canadians need to stop 'squabbling' and work together on projects coast to coast

When Chinese premier Zhou Enlai was asked in 1972 about the impact on China from the French Revolution in 1789, he responded, “It is too early to tell.” That story may be a myth, but it does indicate the long-term thinking of the Chinese government.

Canadians ask how successful our prime minister has been in negotiations with the U.S. president after 10 months in office. We seem determined to fight amongst ourselves when anyone proposes anything intended to enhance our future prosperity. It is certainly not “too early to tell” that our country is under economic attack, whether it’s our auto industry, agriculture or softwood lumber. They’re all targets of international competitors.

This is not a time for Canadians to be tearing ourselves apart with divisive political commentary. We cannot borrow our way to prosperity, but we must invest in industries and infrastructure to compete in a world that does not care how nice or polite we are. Globalization is under attack, and the only way Canada can thrive is for Canadians to pull together and build whatever we need to be able to deliver on those products the world wants.

The news last week reported that 600 First Nations chiefs want to protest a West Coast pipeline while ignoring the economic benefits that such a pipeline will bring to all Canadians, including their own people. We cannot see every initiative as an offence to some aspect of our lives, and we cannot expect any government to continue to provide benefits and services we enjoy while simultaneously making efforts to block every initiative.

Vancouver and Montreal need port development, while Canada needs at least one more pipeline and likely another east-to-west railway. This is not the time to debate whether the scenery on the West Coast is prettier than the scenery on the East Coast, when our opportunity as a nation is that we have three coasts as our access to the world.

Canadians are like a family living next to good neighbours. When the neighbour’s spouse leaves and is replaced by a hostile new spouse, you cannot wish the former relationship would return. Maybe things will change, but it is time to find new friends and separate yourself from the now-hostile neighbour.

“Make America Great Again” may be misguided in its attempts to restore 1950s America, but in Canada, we long for a new trade agreement and plead, “Please, sir, can we just go back to the way it was?”

It will never be the way it was, and history may show that President Donald Trump was the best thing that ever happened to Canada. We will learn to defend ourselves (again), to build our own industries and to get out of our comfort zones and market to the world. Canada enjoys an embarrassment of riches, yet thousands of working Canadians are being laid off because of our own complacency. We thought the United States would always take care of us, and now that we are being pushed out of the nest, we are squabbling amongst ourselves as to who will fly first.

The premiers and the prime minister must start working together as a country. Their meetings should be monthly, not annual, and every meeting should produce a progress report. Either we stop our internal bickering about trade barriers and employment standards, or the Americans, the Chinese or the Russians will come in and show us how that is done.

We are the luckiest people on Earth, and if we do not take advantage of the riches we have been given, someone else will. It is not “too soon to tell that!”

George H. Brookman is the chairman and company ambassador of West Canadian Digital.