Comment by Waterluvian
3 hours ago
That's my point, right?
We've had such a closely integrated economy and it's been a win-win for a very long time. Whether it's resources like lumber or manufacturing like Ontario/Michigan, or massive amounts of fuel refinement, we're so closely interconnected that we've needed that ease of cross-border travel for work. A consequence is that our industry hasn't evolved as much as it could have. We're sitting on an enormous amount of natural resources and technical competence that we've been feeding in to American companies forever, because we were reaping sufficient profits.
What the current regime could absolutely do is force us further from that local maxima by throwing a tantrum over TN1 visas.
I work with a lot of Americans so I know they understand deeply: changing careers out of principle is a rare luxury very few can act on. Especially when you depend on your employer for healthcare (though we don't suffer that mistake as much). I wouldn't expect people to voluntarily quit their jobs the same way they are voluntarily stopping U.S. recreational travel in record numbers [1].
[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cross-border-travel-down-dr...
I question your sources methodology as, similar to travel habits during the performative COVID border lockdown, Canadians are still heading south en masse over the winter.
You are probably thinking of local maxima.
Thanks. I probably am. I will never not confuse the two because I imagine getting into a comfortable place and then having to march up the next hill to discover an even comfier place that you can't see from where you are. I also imagine the instability of placing a boulder at the top of a hill and the effort of pushing it up a hill to find a new resting spot.
I'm sure I can invert the sign of something being measured to make my mental model work again :D