By Darren Atwater | Sunday 1 November 2020
Before I get to the most-read articles and most-listened-to Bearcasts of the week, let me talk about the EU–Canada Trade Agreement (officially, the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement). It starts with the Vauxhall Envoy.
When I was a kid in the early 70s, you’d see plenty of British-made cars on the roads of Canada. Our family had a Vauxhall Envoy, which turns out to be a rebadged Vauxhall Victor. It was a ridiculous car – turn the corner too fast and the door would fly open. Canada didn’t have today’s trade agreement with the United States so trade was much more was British focussed, at least until the UK joined the EU. After that, all mass market cars came from the United States. (Although, in 1990, thanks to an insurance settlement, I bought a red 1965 Austin Healey 3000 convertable. Both the best and absolute worst car that I have ever owned.)
But recently, I have seen a change in the shops here: British chocolates, French jam, Belgian biscuits. Since the US – Canada Trade Agreement was signed in 1988, most packaged items in the shops have been slowly replaced by American products. It was just so much more efficient for the Americans to run an extra shift for exports to Canada than Canadian manufacturers to ramp up their production lines ten fold.
But now I’m seeing old friends from the Britsh supermarkets here, none more exciting than yesterday. I was in my tiny village shop – and new on the shelf were chocolate McVities! My wife and I could not believe our eyes and our good fortune. The tea we made when we returned home never tasted better.
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The most read non-Tom article this week is Currency Reset, Inflation, Mass Unemployment. Where does one turn besides Gold? This is surely bonkers… by Nigel Somerville (for the third week in a row) at a wonderful number one or at number four, including Bearcasts and Tom’s new shareshow. Which one is the best of the week? Tell me in the comments.
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The most-read articles this week were:
The most-listened to Bearcasts this week were:
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