This conscientious homeowner is taking the precautionary step of removing snow from his roof, embracing the adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
We haven’t seen snow like this for a very long time so we may have forgotten the danger it poses. Our homeowner taking snow off his roof is not paranoid, he’s clairvoyant. On Monday friends of ours learned that a section of the roof on their home in Oakville had collapsed, with snow and water falling through 3 floors to the basement. The home was less than 10 years old.
Recent world events have made us more aware that it’s up to us to protect ourselves. We have been lulled into complacency by decades of relative calm, feeling in tune with our allies. We are now forced to open our eyes to fully comprehend the consequences of relying on others for our security and our economic well-being. The protectionist and isolationist policies currently being embraced in the US are a wakeup call to Canada and the rest of the world
Some argue that the protectionism we are seeing in our most significant trading partner will be fleeting. Tariffs will boost inflation on both sides of the border, and Trump campaigned on reducing prices. Even if our economic relationship normalizes quickly, the trust is gone. A contract is only worth the reputation of those who sign it.
I hope the key takeaway of the dangers of putting all of your eggs in one basket is not lost on our leaders, whoever they might be. One of the key principles in finance is diversification as a way to reduce risk. We must diversify our trading partners.
A weekly newsletter about Canada-US relations uses the image of a Beaver and an Eagle. Is it time to show our teeth? KG