Once referring to his boss as "Mr. Theatre," former Canadian ambassador and small-l liberal Allan Gotlieb wrote a brilliant, and very frank memoir of his time serving in Washington as Canada's ambassador in the 1980's. The Washington Diaries included Gotlieb's tenure during the Reagan-Thatcher years. The much-loved-and-hated conservative dynamic duo of the 80's was always in the news, and the Canadian embassy in Washington had become somewhat of a hangout - due in no small part to Mrs. Gotlieb's skill and sharp wit. She had a humor column in The Washington Post, and her uncanny sense of comedic frankness nearly-always worked, like when she quipped: "For some reason a glaze passes over people's faces when you say 'Canada.' Maybe we should invade South Dakota or something."In May 1983 Reagan defied most world experts by taking a provocative stance in head-to-head disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union, which he had called "an evil empire." This was the cold war at a particularly chilling moment. Around this time, Sting was penning the lyrics for his haunting critique, "I hope the Russians Love their Children Too."
Gotlieb notes that his boss, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, was very intelligent, and could out-debate most of his G-7 contemporaries, but that Trudeau's arrogance often got in the way. Of one particularly intense meeting with Thatcher and Reagan, Gotlieb said: "Our prime minister, true to form, is playing... a rather immodest role... There is so much in his performance that now smacks of personal interest... Members of the Canadian team make little cracks about Reagan and the Americans, in the characteristic Canadian manner of looking down one's nose at the Americans."
Famously, Reagan's strategy with the Russians worked, and was a precursor to the dismantling of the iron curtain.
Fast-forward to Trudeau 2, and the recent NATO summit in the UK. Nobody would accuse T2 of being the brightest light in the room, but he does seem to have inherited his father's sense of inherent superiority. Giggling and gossiping, behind the back of our biggest trading partner, led by a president who is notoriously thin-skinned and vindictive? He can think anything he wants about Trump, but if he was working for me and got caught ridiculing one of my most important clients, he'd be packing up his desk today.
The Economists Special Karma 2-pack arrived on Trudeau's porch a couple of days later.
In the Canada last month, we lost 71,000 jobs, while the US added 266,000. Ouch.
The Canadian labour market shrinkage was due to a retracement of a public administration jobs boost in October that was probably related to the federal election that month. The unemployment rate surged up to 5.9% from 5.5% in October. The 0.4 percentage point increase is the largest since early 2009. And manufacturing jobs are down more than 50k over the last two months combined. Dang.
US Unemployment rate edged back down to 3.5%. The strong rebound in job growth, reflected upward revisions to earlier months, a lower unemployment rate, and still-solid (though not accelerating) wage growth. Low jobless claims and still-elevated vacancies suggest lack of labour supply is a big part of the story. Overall job gains have remained strong enough to push the unemployment rate to new, multi-decade lows.
Asked to comment on the two contrasting reports, Trudeau was tongue-tied.
Mark Ryan is an Investment Advisor with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (Member-Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and these are Mark's views, and not those of RBC Dominion Securities. This article is for information purposes only. Please consult with a professional advisor before taking any action based on information in this article. See Mark's website at: http://dir.rbcinvestments.com/mark.ryan
