“For God’s sake, don’t tell Jack that you plan to make those turbines in Canada.”
That was the advice whispered into my ear as I walked into Jack Welch’s palatial hotel suite in Beijing sometime in 1993. I was just getting my feet under me as the commercial leader of GE Canada’s hydroelectric turbine and generator business, with massive facilities in Lachine, Que., and Peterborough, Ont.
I was walking into this private briefing with GE’s CEO because I had been invited to participate in a round of meetings Jack was having with Chinese government ministers. All this because our hydro business was well on the way to setting a GE record for exports to China.
As a proud Canadian engineer, I was thrilled to have transferred into this business. It was one of only a handful of examples of Canadians legitimately designing and building the best technology in the world.
What followed was a strange theatre of the absurd. My American counterparts misled Jack into thinking that the hydro business was really an integral part of GE Power Systems in Schenectady, New York. In fact, the leaders of that business were clueless about our technology and applications.
All of this was deemed necessary because Jack hated Canada. I mean really hated Canada. He saw us as a bunch of socialist whiners who were quick to look for handouts and make excuses for our poor performance, all the while professing our superiority to the US. The concern was that had he known these turbines and generators were made in Canada, he would have insisted we manufacture them anywhere but here.
And you know who else really, really hates Canada? Donald Trump. He is cut from the same cloth as Jack. They were even friends during the years that Jack kept a pied-a-terre in one of Trump’s New York buildings.
The scary thing is that Jack wasn’t completely wrong. Canadians do tend to be sanctimonious and entitled in our business dealings with Americans.
Our political and business leaders better change their approach, and fast. I don’t believe Trump is bluffing about 25 per cent tariffs and annexing Canada. I have seen this movie before, as the leader of two different GE businesses in Canada that desperately tried to keep our business up north under the thumb of oppressive American ownership.
It seems obvious to me that Trump will use the overwhelming leverage that comes from buying more than 70 per cent of Canada’s exports to extract nation-destroying concessions. Expect to see demands such as giving up our water rights in the west, unlimited access to our commodities including rare earth minerals, and the dismantling of our financial services and airline industries, not to mention our supply-managed dairy system.
Now you might welcome some of these changes, as do I. But if all of this happens as an edict of a foreign government, we become nothing more than a vassal state.
Perhaps most alarming is the tone of defeatism I am hearing in Canada. Please just stop it.
We are a vibrant middle power with a strong democracy that has unrivaled natural and human resources. We are better than this. But we need our leaders to stand up and speak to us like grown-ups.
It is time to fight for Canada.
As painful as it sounds, we must reduce our dependence on exports to the US. We must put every possible incentive and penalty in place to strong-arm our exports away from the US and toward our European, Asian and South American partners.
We should also work aggressively to find common ground on trade and defence with other democratic middle powers: countries that share the challenge of standing up to China, Russia and the USA.
We need our leaders to aggressively make the case for change so that Canadians are ready to face the challenges and hardships ahead.
What we can’t do is pretend that Trump didn’t post a meme showing himself annexing Canada.
We must acknowledge the reality of the situation, and stand up for Canada — just as I did when I told Jack Welch that those turbines and generators were made in Canada.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts James. These are interesting times that will require true leadership.
You are devastatingly truthful! Thank you for stating what needs to be heard. Our political leaders are weak and lazy, and we will pay a price for this.