Neo-Colonialism

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Oil and Money Flow

Canadians like to assume that Canada is a large exporting resource laden land mass; yes and no. The Wall Street Journal observes a different market; "Canada an Emerging Market? Yes, for U.S. Oil Exports". Light crude imported into Canada from the U.S. increased 520% from 2008 to 2013 and is expected to rise another 61% by 2015 (top panel of chart mashup). 

As the U.S. becomes more energy self sufficient, Canada becomes more reliant on imported fuels. For more background information see the blog discussion between Andrew Leach and Robert McClelland etal.

Canadians don't build energy infrastructure because of a) expense; it's short term "cheaper" to import other nation's value added products, b) trade agreements; our small relative market size keeps us compliant and acquiescent at the bargaining table and c) policy void; it's easier politically and corporately to let a+b=c

Now look at the bottom panel of the chart mashup above. When the price of imported fuel spikes so does the volume of Canadian imports AT THE HIGHER PRICE!

Meanwhile in Canada:

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1. In Canada services account for more than 70% of GDP. Within services the most important are: Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing and management of companies and enterprises (21% of total GDP); Retail and wholesale trade (12%), Health (8%) and Public administration (6%). Manufacturing accounts for 13% of the output and Construction for 6%. Mining and oil and gas extraction constitute only 4% of GDP, yet Canada is a net exporter of energy. Also, although Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting account for 2% of output, the country is one of the world's largest suppliers of agricultural products. 
2. In Canada, Productivity is the real value of output produced by a unit of labor during a certain time. It is used to measure efficiency of the economy. 
3. The Current Account is the sum of the balance of trade (exports minus imports of goods and services), net factor income (such as interest and dividends) and net transfer payments (such as foreign aid).