Canada will become one of the most powerful nations: Tony Blair

And hopefully we'll wield this power responsibly.

Wouldn't it be a hoot if Canada and China became the worlds new superpowers?


*sigh* I can dream, can't I?

If anybody would wield a power responsibly, it would be Canada. Though various nations are using there heads when it comes to wars but Canada did it first and longer.

Blair has a penchant for stating the obvious, I'll give him that.

It's allllll about oil

Actually, water could become the world's future "oil". And we have more than anyone else, which is why need to protect it(since it is finite) and we need to be careful about it and play our cards right.

Canada could become powerful if we beef up the military, our infrastructure.

Our pros would be our high-tech stuff, water, oil, precious metals and gems, and natural gas.

This was predicted 50 years ago by world economists. I'm just suprised that it took this long to actually happen.

Although, I don't think that they mean world power in the sense of massive armies and abiltiy to destroy the world.I think it is much more subtle and we'll be able to wield power through economics rather than force.

The bad part of all this is that as a resource based economy someday we'll end up with no resources to speak of being held hostage by foreign countries who have them.

World economy is already like that. If Saudi Arabia stops pumping oil, we have a problem. If another hurricane hits the gulf of Mexico, every consumer item has a raise in price.

Hell, if it only LOOKS like something is going to happen, the oil price rises, which affects everything we do and buy.

Brenda


Price goes up so does GDP. Unfortunately thanks to NAFTA our gasoline prices are set in the US and our gas price goes nuts. Because gasoline taxes increase with the price the tax man profits as well.

Funny thing is then we can drive across the bridge and buy gas cheaper, than here.

It's a nuts situation.

GDP? What is that short for?

Well, Gasprices in Holland were two weeks ago 1.43 euro's a litre (that is about 2 C$... The prices there are set by Shell (mostly of course), (and the government who wants 60% of the price we paid...) who rises them when the oil price rises, and is supposed to lower them when oil prices per barrel go down, but of course they don't... At least not as fast as the oil price can come down... Prices of gas where higher here when we were here last year, but a barrel of oil costs US$ 92.- at the moment I don't wanna know what people in Holland pay now...
On the other hand, the US$ is very low, so that should lower it a bit

We're getting a Canada bubble.

This bubble is being fed by oil revenuues though. As long as the price of crude keeps going up, the dollar..should.. remain fairly stable. The only problem is it's making the cost of our other export products more expensive and there are lots of other nations that can produce these commodities at a cheaper price. American soft wood producers would be loving this, if only the housing market picked up. If Canadian products become uncompetitive our unemployment rates will climb...unemployed people don't buy big ticket or even moderate ticket items, with the end result being a slip into........ recession?

There, I said the dirty r word.

Ah Thanks, Shep, Bruto Nationaal Product dus