When we don’t have a need for things, they just sit there on the shelf. When we do need them, everyone is going after them. Hospitals have been asking for medical supplies. Everyone is going after the same supplies and there’s not enough to go around—at least for the present time.
Here in Canada, the Prime Minister just announced that thousands of manufacturers are offering to manufacture medical supplies. What is coming soon are test kits, ventilators, and personal protective equipment, including 30,000 ventilators. Hopefully, there will be a glut of supplies after this whole Covid-19 ordeal is over and done with.
Since President Trump announced that N95 facemasks would not be leaving the United States, we realized that we would be in a hugely weakened position. Canadians just realized that we cannot depend on American manufacturers for supplies. We cannot depend on anyone to supply us when we are in a bind. Same goes for every country in the world.
This crisis has forced us to understand how important a domestic manufacturing industry is to our own country. One huge benefit to any country is to have its own manufacturing industry. We need to be self-dependent. We need to produce what we use, and use what we produce. Self-reliance is good for our country.
We also want to have our own natural resources. In Canada’s case, we have lots of oil, minerals, and natural resources. in a worst-case scenario, we can rely on our own resources.
The downside is that we would have to shut down our borders and not allow anything to come into our country. Doing so would shut off the supply valve from other countries. Then we would be forced to purchase our own Canadian labels. This is a closed-system, which would not be good for the country. A closed economy causes inflation. In the end, it would mean higher prices for everyone. Do we want to pay higher prices? No way.
Another way to get around this would be to slap on huge tariffs on imported goods coming into the country. This is protectionism. This is the way of the Trump Administration. It is a counter-measure to open borders and free trade in order to boost up a country’s manufacturing industry and produce more jobs.
I don’t think Trump is against free trade. He is also for fair trade. Fair trade will produce more Made in U.S.A. labels. Perhaps this is the type of environment our world needs right now. We need to be more self-reliant when there is a crisis.
If there are a few good things that will come out of all this are new manufacturing jobs, plus a greater pride in our country’s products. Made in Canada… and greater patriotism. May God bless our nation’s people with ingenuity, technology, and manufacturing.
During this time in self-isolation, I will try to not watch too much news, but still keep up with world events. Seems like the only event going on is the coronavirus issue.
Wang Fang, an accomplished author of novels, keeps an online diary and is followed by 4.2 million people in China on Weibo. During the middle of Wuhan’s coronavirus lockdown, CCP authorities were repeatedly censoring her WeChat account. As a response, she would repeatedly update her followers to her new accounts every few days. Now, that’s dedication to speak the truth–true journalism and real news.
