You sometimes wonder what kind of business people are running Bombardier. They got sucker punched by Boeing in the United States and they ran crying into the arms of Airbus. This was a desperation move and was too soon. Airbus smelled the fear and they ended up owning the Canadian company’s C Series aircraft business.
Bombardier is a company built on Canadian dreams. It grew with the country. It reflected our complexity. The original company had élan and nerve. It set out to serve its market. It developed the machines that could traverse our winter snows for business and pleasure. There is nothing more Canadian than hockey and the Ski-doo.
Bombardier, based in Montreal, has become am international corporation with more than 60,000 employees and revenues of over $16 billion. Today, it is in the business of building planes, trains and trams.
Mind you, it has hurt its business relationship with constant delays in delivering new street cars to Toronto. With Toronto being the financial capital of Canada, the city is a customer they should be eager to please.
There have also been continuing delays in meeting its schedules with the C Series regional jets. This is a market niche that Bombardier can dominate if it can just meet deadlines.
It also did not help that in answer to the Boeing complaint, the American government slapped a deal-blocking 300 per cent tariff on Bombardier’s sale of C Series planes to Delta Airlines. Despite Boeing having no competitive product for the regional carrier market, the Americans gave Canada the dirty end of the stick.
Boeing would not have wasted its time in this squabble if it not for the current review of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). If the Trump administration can be belligerent bullies and unreasonable, why should Boeing not take part in the same game?
If Canada had proper representation in Washington, we would not be putting up with the crap being fed us by Trump. It is time Canadians stood on their hind legs and said enough is enough. Just because the United States is next door, does not make it the best trading partner. There has to be fair trade before there can be free trade.
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Copyright 2017 © Peter Lowry
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