Canada Letter: Free Trade Disillusionment and the First Hipsters

The Times’s recent Canada-related coverage with back stories and analysis from our reporters along with opinions from our readers. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, January 26, 2018 [NYTimes.com/Canada »]( [Free Trade Disillusionment and the First Hipsters]( By IAN AUSTEN About a decade before it signed a free trade deal with the United States, Canada’s federal government spent about $1.5 million on a campaign that placed maple leaf stickers and tags on products, encouraging shoppers to [“Buy Canadian.”]( [Peterborough, Ontario, where there has been a steady exodus of large factories.] Peterborough, Ontario, where there has been a steady exodus of large factories. Aaron Vincent Elkaim for The New York Times It would be difficult to undertake a similar effort today. Looking for a new kitchen range? The only Canadian-made offerings are premium-priced, antique or 1950s-style models from the [Elmira Stove Works](. The reporters’ notebooks I’ve used all my career still have reproductions of clippings from Canadian newspapers circa 1975 on their covers. But a few years ago, their production was shifted to India and now they come from China. And this week, Campbell Soup said it [would close its Canadian plant]( and move its work to the United States. In advance of the North American Free Trade Agreement talks in Montreal this coming week, I traveled to [Peterborough, Ontario,]( one of many cities that once made what Canada bought. Since Canada entered into free trade with the United States in 1989, Peterborough has seen an exodus of major factories. This year, General Electric, which once employed 6,000 people, will go after 126 years. Now, buying Canadian is pretty difficult. Almost everyone I spoke with in Peterborough, which is an unusually attractive city, either blamed Nafta or told me that they want to see major changes to the agreement. One of the exceptions was Tom Phillips, an economist at Trent University who called Nafta “a scapegoat.” Dr. Phillips is a Peterborough native and recalls that during his childhood the time whistle at the 80-acre G.E. complex once set the city’s pace. A shift to government jobs, along with employment at places like Trent and in services like health care, has left the city with a healthy economy, he said. At the same time, while the large factories have shut down in Peterborough, the number of small businesses has grown. “The Peterborough economy is better positioned to be successful than it was in 1975,” he said. [Part of the General Electric plant in Peterborough, which is about to close after 126 years.] Part of the General Electric plant in Peterborough, which is about to close after 126 years. Aaron Vincent Elkaim for The New York Times But Dr. Phillips did acknowledge two significant problems with the city’s transformation. Peterborough’s unemployment rate gyrates. Last summer, it was the highest in the country; last month, it was below the national average. That suggests to him that many of the city’s new jobs are temporary or contract positions. In addition, he said, workers in Peterborough haven’t seen wage gains to match the profit growth of the new companies that have appeared. Certainly few salaries match those of G.E., where factory wages start at 30 Canadian dollars an hour and come with generous benefits. Just as the latest round of Nafta talks neared their opening, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government announced that it had reached a deal to bring Canada into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, another free trade arrangement that had been championed by the United States only to be abandoned by President Trump. The old days before free trade, of course, weren’t without problems. Often inefficient Canadian factories protected by tariffs offered Canadian consumers a limited selection of products at comparatively high prices. Protectionist policies that kept factories running in Ontario and Quebec sometimes limited the ability of western Canada to export agricultural and natural resource-based products because of retaliatory tariffs. [Tom Phillips, an economist at Trent University, said Nafta was being used as a scapegoat.] Tom Phillips, an economist at Trent University, said Nafta was being used as a scapegoat. Aaron Vincent Elkaim for The New York Times But I was struck in Peterborough about the widespread disappointment over Nafta. So I’m interested in the thoughts of Canada letter readers about this. How has Nafta and free trade affected you, your family and friends? Have you given up on “Buy Canadian?” What do you want to see emerge from the current Nafta talks? Please send your thoughts to nytcanada@nytimes.com, and don’t forget to tell us your age and where you live. My colleagues in the Reader Center will go through your replies and publish a selection next week. Read: [This City Once Made Much of What Canada Bought. But No More.]( Read: [As U.S. Trumpets ‘America First,’ Rest of the World Is Moving On]( Read: [These 3 Everyday Products Show Who Won and Lost From Nafta]( Read: [U.S. Panel Halts Trump Administration’s Bid for Tariffs on Canadian Jets]( Western Travels A highlight of The Times’s Travel coverage are stories the editors call “personal journeys.” About five years after her mother’s death, Karen Schwartz met up in Vancouver with her father, Jerry, for a sailing trip linked to their family’s past. Mr. Schwartz, who is from Calgary, had repurchased a 33-foot sailboat he first owned in 1982. Set aside some time this weekend to read the story of their trip along the coast of British Columbia. Also in Travel, the popular 36 Hours series has just featured Calgary. Among the stops the article proposes is the WinSport park, an idea I endorse. The many wonders of that Winter Olympics legacy include an indoor luge and bobsled track. It’s truncated of course. Read: [Sailing Into Today on a Boat From Our Past]( Read: [36 Hours in Calgary, Alberta]( The Contemporary Past [Prospectors from about 1860.] Prospectors from about 1860. Canadian Photography Institute My plans this weekend include seeing a new exhibition of photographs of the [19th century gold rushes]( in California and the Yukon at the National Gallery of Canada. The California ones were pulled from the gallery’s collection of 11,000 daguerreotypes. In a post for [The Times’s Lens photo blog,]( Sarah Moroz wrote that the images made using that early photographic process rival those of modern digital photography in their clarity. That’s not the only thing that seems modern. Luce Lebart, the head of the gallery’s photo institute, told Ms. Moroz that the appearance of many of the miners in the photos “is sometimes so close to that of contemporary hipsters that the viewer is almost perplexed.” Read: [The Age of Gold and Daguerreotype]( Trans Canada [Deaths of Billionaire Toronto Couple Were Homicides, Police Say]( Toronto authorities have ruled out murder-suicide, but they have no suspects yet in the mysterious killings. [Ontario’s Opposition Leader Quits Over Sexual Misconduct Allegations]( Three politicians stepped down this week because of accusations of sexual impropriety. On the political front, it was a particular blow to Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives, whose leader, Patrick Brown, resigned about five months before a vote many had expected the party to win. [Linking Youth Funding to Abortion Rights Spawns Backlash in Canada and Beyond]( The Trudeau government’s requirement that groups seeking federal grants for student jobs must support abortion rights has set off a cultural battle. International Real Estate [House Hunting in … Quebec]( The International Real Estate House Hunting feature checked out an unusual and historic place in the heart of Old Quebec City. HOW ARE WE DOING? We hope you enjoyed our Canada Letter. Tell us what you think and what you’d like to see, at [nytcanada@nytimes.com](mailto:nytcanada@nytimes.com? subject=Canada%20Letter%20Newsletter%20Feedback). A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported about Canada for The New York Times for over a decade. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten. There’s just over a week left to defeat the Australia Letter. LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. 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