Jim Balsillie
speaker
218 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Mar 2025
Jim Balsillie’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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inserting the rent stuff where you get really high rents which means that drives up your gdp per capita through higher terms of trade and so their thinking is that i'm going to make you pay to come in here that's going to uh enhance our the prices we get and we believe that's going to deflate your currency because it makes you and a deflation of a currency is like a pay decrease or an
Because it buys less. And you sell it for less too. Right. So that worsens your terms of trade, which benefits America's terms of trade. So they're trying to shift the structure of the global economic system where they become effectively aristocratic and everyone else is some lower economic status economy. and that is an economic logic being played out to Mexico and Canada.
The tricky part is there's not a lot more blood to get out of the stone that is Mexico. I think there is a legitimate security thing that they're paying attention to. With regards to the border? Yeah, and there's probably a couple little strategic things they want in the economy, access to the oil system and owning it and so on.
But there's a lot of blood to get from the Canadian prosperity because we're a relatively prosperous and rich country, eroding as we are. There's a lot of gems in there to get. So I think his objective, if you weaken it enough, you go in for the gems and you hold it in a subordinate position. Because that's the economic logic that is at play here. So it's a dominance logic, fundamentally.
Yeah, it's an economic insecurity dominance logic.
I'm angry. I'm angry about. Yeah. Yeah. I'm angry about them. Yeah. I wake up angry on it because I feel. it's wrong at so many levels. So that's my second normative thing. I'll shed it. Now, you be a clinical psychologist, make me feel a little better, and I'm bothered by it. And I think it's going to hurt one in four people. What about the one in four people that have food insecurity?
Like, for goodness sakes, people need food and a home. And now... Really? And you're going to erode the whole system, hurt Canada comparatively more, still hurt America, and vulnerable people are going to pay the largest price. Because what? Because that's how the aristocracy works and let them eat cake. And... Yeah, as a proud Canadian and somebody that believes in... My dad was an electrician.
I mean, these structures, I wouldn't have gone to school. I wouldn't have had this. Yeah, it violates all sense of fairness for me. So that part of it is not... Not cool by me, but yeah, we'll go into the misplay hand by Trump. Okay, well, two things.
Well, it's a beautiful country. How can you not love the country? I mean, just because I love it doesn't mean I always like it. Yeah.
Yeah, of course. And I've doubled down. Of course. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, this is my team. This is my country. This is my home. Your job, it's given me so much. And as you said, your obligation is to carry the load you think you can handle. So you carry the load that you think is yours that you can bring to bear.
And there's beautiful people who volunteer at food banks, who do many wonderful things in this country, health care workers who care for vulnerable, and on and on it goes.
Yeah, it's very rewarding. It's very meaningful. It's a shame to see it suboptimized, but do you let the bullies and the elite failure of the last 30 years prevail when there are so many good people who are trying to advocate for for a better country and a better future. And if I can provide some resources and air cover for them, as opposed to the banning them,
Well, morally, what do you think is the right thing to do? Right, and hence this discussion.
Yes, do you want to flesh that out? Yeah, I didn't answer that yet. I didn't answer that yet because we split too hard here. I think Trump has made a strategic mistake because... America's got an unbelievable deal from Canada. And as they got this exfiltration of our best graduates tend to leave in droves from places like Waterloo to Silicon Valley, adding to the trillions of market cap.
Our best ideas invariably are taken by U.S. companies where they own them and commercialize them. Our best resources like Alberta oil is overwhelmingly shipped raw to Canada. to America where it's value added and sold back here. American companies come to Canada basically get monopolies for what they sell here in various technologies and products and pharmaceuticals.
So it's already a pretty good deal for the US. It's an amazing deal. And then they don't have to pay taxes here and the wealth effects aren't shared here. So America has got a great deal from Canada, an unbelievable deal. And Canada says, thank you for that. Would you like fries with this? And that's because of this inattention that we've talked about in the second leg. And
The frog has been cooking one degree at a time for Canada over 30 years. And a shrewd person would have said, let's keep this game going. Let's maybe turn it up two degrees at a time, but don't turn it up too much that you freak out the frog and it jumps out of the pot. And I think Trump thought he had such dominance.
It was kind of like the Russians with the Ukrainians, that they would just submit. And what Trump has done, he's been so extreme, so out of line. that he's actually woken up Canadians to say, we're better than this. We're capable of being more sovereign. We're capable of being more prosperous. I'm not going to take it. I'm not going to submit. I'm going to invest.
I'm going to start to think about this. Wake up. And actually, Canadians will start to get their fair deal in this changed economy with an updated sense of thinking. That could happen. Well, that's the fork in the road. So do they submit and become a subordinate Puerto Rico without a passport? Or do they respond and build the capacity
to vision and work towards an appropriate standing and future for the country in this changed world. And I think that potential of the latter one is there and before us. I'm gonna bring all I can to bear in encouraging and supporting that potential, but it's not certain that that's gonna happen. It's very clear what Trump's gonna do. He's not gonna back off.
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