My Take | In reality, friendshoring is just another name for ‘vassalisation’
- Under the US’ new industrial policy, mineral-rich Canada is finding that being its friendly neighbour can cost an arm and a leg, maybe more
Faced with rising external challenges, a great power decides to take a U-turn and adopt industrial policy that will require new energy and mineral resources. Its military draws up a list of key natural resources essential to the new policy.
By coincidence, another country that has long followed its lead suddenly prioritises those same minerals which it has in abundance for possible mining. How would you characterise such a relationship?
If that other country wasn’t from the West, it would have been labelled as a vassal state. But since it’s Canada, and the big brother is Uncle Sam, it’s called “friendshoring”. It sounds so friendly it must be some win-win deal. But any way you look at it, it’s the Americans rather than Canadians who will come out on top. Actually, Canadians have already come out short under the US’ new industrial policy, whatever other future outcomes may be.
A big shoutout to my friend Richard, who alerted me to this investigative piece from the Quebec newspaper L’aut’journal.
Confronted by China’s dominance in the supply of rare earths, the Pentagon has drawn up a map identifying key strategic minerals available in North America. The background to this is, of course, the need to cut dependency on China.
As if on cue, Ottawa has quickly compiled its own list of 31 prioritised minerals such as cobalt, coltan, copper, graphite, lithium niobium, zinc, nickel and rare earths. The French-speaking province of Quebec is well endowed with these strategic minerals. For example, it holds 25 per cent of lithium reserves in North America.