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Year in review: Donald Trump & Kelowna

Five weeks ago, on the morning of November 9th, Kelowna residents awoke to surprising news. The U.S. candidate for president had been decided and it wasn’t the one everyone expected.

Across a whirlwind evening, the Presidential election had been taken from the seasoned, if sketchy, politician Hillary Clinton and given to the real-estate mogul Donald J. Trump.

The events that unfolded on the night of November 8th left the world reeling. World leaders and global media were left dumbfounded, attempting to imagine how a President Trump might affect them.

While five weeks have passed since this pivotal evening, Trump remains a dark horse. Few of his policies have been de-mystified and most remain vague. Therefore, despite our curiosity, we are still largely unaware of what a Trump presidency will look like and how this might affect us.

While few specific details have been fleshed out, there have been some pivotal moments over the last five months.

Local

On a local basis, Kelowna MPs and MLAs reacted to the news, discussing plans for the upcoming year.

Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola MP Dan Albas argued that we won’t have to worry about NAFTA. According to Albas, past presidents, such as Clinton, have made promises to renegotiate NAFTA however, neither of these came to fruition.

“Once you suddenly bear the responsibility of the decisions, reality somehow changes,” said Albas.

<who> Photo Credit: KelownaNow </who> Local leaders meet the Chamber of Commerce to discuss a Trump presidency.

Minister of Forests for B.C, the Kelowna-Mission MLA Steve Thomson, has also envisioned future trade with the U.S. Thomson is working on a new softwood lumber trade agreement with the U.S. Thomson was confident that this agreement would be reached despite Trump’s seemingly anti-trade mentality.

During this meeting, Minister of Agriculture Norm Letnick, said that B.C. has been diversifying their market so that now 50 per cent of output was going to countries besides the U.S. If Trump does stay true to his protectionist promises, this will prove to be a good move.

For more information, read KelownaNow's article 'Kelowna leaders discuss year ahead and a Trump presidency' '

Trump & TPP

As a trading alliance with countries across the Pacific Ocean, including Japan, the Trans-Pacific Partnership would have been beneficial to Canada.

<who> Photo Credit: Contributed </who> A sunset shot of Japanese shipping yard.

During his campaign, Trump adamantly objected to the TPP. In November, we interviewed Professor Julian Picault, an economist at UBC Okanagan, to talk about Trump's trade policy and how that could affect us.

“Canada and Kelowna benefits from free trade,” said Picault. “While free trade can hurt certain markets, overall it has had a positive effect. As such, any restriction on trade with the U.S. and we will suffer.”

Since November 8th, Trump has remained constant in his stance against the TPP.

Environmental Policy

In the above video, posted to Twitter on Monday the 21st, Trump speaks about various policies beside the TPP. This includes a promise to trash restrictions on energy creation. For every one new regulation, Trump has committed to eliminating two old regulations.

In keeping with his disregard for environmental policy, Trump has elected Rex Tillerson Secretary of State. Tillerson is Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, an international oil and gas company with financial interest in the deregulation of the energy sector.

Furthermore, Trump's environmental advisers are hardly green activists. Myron Ebell is Trump's top pick to lead the U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency (EPA). As a climate change skeptic and head of Coolers Heads Coalition, a group of nonprofits that "question global warming alarmism and oppose energy-rationing policies," Ebell is unlikely to enforce energy regulations many in the scientific community are asking for.

<who> Photo Credit: Contributed </who>

Overall, a re-shape of U.S. environmental policy will affect Kelowna as the stress from climate change marks our landscape. For example, there is strong evidence that the dramatic increases in overall temperature in the region have contributed to warm winters and less snowfall. According to Adapting Natural Resource Management to Climate Change in the Thompson-Okanagan Region, winter in our region has warmed significantly, extreme rainfall and dry conditions increasing while snow packs have decreased.

Canadian Currency

In the late hours of November 8th, global markets reacted to a Trump presidency negatively. At around 11 p.m. EST, the U.S. dollar dropped two per cent. This resulted in the depreciation of the Canadian dollar which fell as low as 73.89 cents to the U.S. dollar.

<who> Photo Credit: Contributed </who>

In a November interview, professor Julien Picault suggested that this depreciation would help us with our exports while hurting our imports. A depreciated Canadian dollar results in cheaper Canadian goods to our trading partners while foreign goods become pricier. In other words, our lumber becomes cheaper for Americans while German gummy bears are more expensive for us.

Since November 8th, the U.S. and Canadian currency have returned to normal levels. While the Canadian dollar remains lower than its U.S. counterpart, in a recent interview Professor Julien Picault stated that it’s hard to attribute this to Trump.

“The markets have reacted in a surprising way,” said professor Julien Picault. “While everyone predicted an apocalypse, we’re still waiting for a market reaction and it’s not there. They seem to have continued like he wasn’t elected."

<who> Photo Credit: Contributed </who>

There’s certainly a lot that we don’t know about Trump and what kind of world leader he will be. Nevertheless, there is one thing we know: Trump does what he needs to do to win.

“Trump is committed to victory,” said Dr. Picault. “So, now Trump has won the presidency, we have to ask what victory looks like to him from now on. In other words, what does ‘Make America Great Again’ mean? What does Trump mean when he says ‘great’ and what does he mean when he says ‘America.'”

In other words, when Trump says America, does he mean all U.S. citizens? Do the Americas he intends to ‘make great again’ include women, men, children, homosexuals and immigrants? Or is his vision of America corporations, industries and Wall Street?

With Trump yet to take the presidential mantle, these are questions are can’t answer with certainty. While we know what he’s said and who he trusts to help him run the country, President Trump remains a mysterious figure. Perhaps by this time next year, when KelownaNow is writing ‘Year in Review 2017,' we’ll know more.

KelownaNow is looking back on 2016, a year of impactful news locally and worldwide. Stay tuned until New Year's Eve to see what we think our biggest stories were over the past year.



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Send your comments, news tips, typos, letter to the editor, photos and videos to news@kelownanow.com.



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