Subj : Re: Chinese Scientists Cr
To   : MIKE POWELL
From : Rob Mccart
Date : Mon Feb 24 2025 01:53:00

RM>> They mentioned on the news today that almost all of our trade routes
  >> for highway, rail and oil pipelines run North South, to trade with
  >> you rather than with the rest of Canada. There is talk of totally
  >> changing that as well.

MP>Part of that might have something to do with how your population is spread
  >out, the climate, and the geography.  IIRC, there is only one highway that
  >runs E-W that connects all the provinces, and only one or maybe two rail
  >lines.  The Great Lakes get in the way of running too many of either across
  >Ontario and hitting an area that is actually populated.  If you go much
  >farther north than Lake Superior, there really are not many people up
  >there, and maintaining the roads in the kind of winter weather that would
  >be received would be a large, and expensive, effort.

The Great Lakes are more or less a border between our countries, so
to the furthest points south. You do have to move up a bit to get over
them but the rest of Canada West of Ontario is actually all further
North than those lakes. But you were right about population centres.
Ontario has a great deal of the population, resources and manufacturing
and, until you get far out West, the provinces between are mostly
farming areas with some having a little or a lot of oil. But, back to
where we started, about 2/3 of the country is West of the Great Lakes
so are not affected..

MP>My opinion is that Canada (and Mexico and probably everyone else) really
  >needs to start planning long-term to do their own thing and not rely on us
  >as much.

Probably a good idea but for 50+ years our relationship has benefitted
both countries with stable, reasonably wealthy, markets and shared
manufacturing and it would be a shame to lose that situation..

We are used to the rest of the world being unstable but were always
able tp rely on our closest neighbours..
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 * SLMR Rob  * Warning: Dates in calendar are closer than they appear
 * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)

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