North America Works -- Part III: Detroit/Windsor border-hopping nurses

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North America Works -- Part III: Detroit/Windsor border-hopping nurses

Lee Anne Raper is living the North American life along another border, the one that separates Canada and the U.S. A nurse at the Henry Ford Hospital close to downtown Detroit, Raper doesn’t live in Detroit. Actually, she doesn’t even live in the United States. For the past 19 years, she has driven to work every day across the Ambassador Bridge from her home in Windsor, Ontario, a trip of only about six miles.

“I can see where I live from the 17th story of the hospital,” she says. “I actually know some of the (border) guards. They call me by name and ask me if I’m going to work.”

Raper is just one of about 800 Canadian nurses who cross the border every day to work in the U.S. These border-hopping nurses highlight some of the similarities but also the differences between the economies of the two North American neighbors that share a 5,525-mile border and enjoy one of the world’s longest-standing and most amicable relationships.

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Anti-trade rhetoric is key to U.S. electoral success, study shows, but rarely translates to action

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Anti-trade rhetoric is key to U.S. electoral success, study shows, but rarely translates to action

Bashing trade has always been assumed to be good politics, never more so than during this U.S. election cycle. However researchers at Georgetown University have done the math, showing exactly how anti-trade rhetoric translates into victory at the voting booth.

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have said they would significantly alter – or even rip up – key agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

That kind of rhetoric resonates with a segment of voters – low-skilled, highly paid manufacturing workers, whose jobs are at the highest risk of being outsourced to lower cost jurisdictions overseas – that have an extraordinary amount of influence when it comes to Electoral College votes.

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The Great Lakes need a new maritime strategy — and fast

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The Great Lakes need a new maritime strategy — and fast

Untapped economic potential and environmental concerns are the driving forces behind a new maritime strategy for the Great Lakes, the first of its kind.

“In order to remain competitive in today’s global markets, we need to improve and expand the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence maritime transportation system,” Premier Kathleen Wynne said when she announced the strategy along with Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on June 15.

The Great Lakes regional economy was worth US$5.8 trillion in 2015 and would be the third largest economy in the world if it were a country, according to a recent BMO report. “The economic importance of the region can’t be overstated,” it says.

But not enough is being done to promote maritime transport in the region, says the Conference of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers, the organization that produced the maritime strategy. The conference brings together the leaders from Ontario, Quebec, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

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