Forget the short term - in the short term there is going to be pain. Lumber, cars, perhaps dairy, all of those areas are in Trump's crosshairs and he has now fired the first shot.

So, in the interim we pay the price for not widening our customer base.

Basically we will pay the price for not asking a fundamental question: In the long term, in a world of 9 billion (in 2050) and then 12 billion (in 2100), what does Canada have that the world will need and cannot easily obtain elsewhere.

We know the answer, we just don't like it. It makes us out as "hewers of wood, drawers of water".

So what?

We have resources. Land, Water.  Develop them, now. Open up the North. Open up Ontario's Ring of Fire.

The pipeline obstructionism of the past decade has exposed the soft underbelly of Canada: we want to pretend we're more than resources, the rest of the world views us, economically, only as a resource state.

Make up your mind folks, the train for the 22nd century is approaching the station.