I found the Editorial by Kelly Geraldine Malone on The Canadian Press to be a nice sum-up of where we are at as this year comes to a close. We started out the year somewhat in trepidation of what was perhaps in store for us as the change in government was about to begin in the United States. Canada has not in the past three radical changes in how business is done here made the necessary steps to become the great producing nation it can be - in the mid 1960s we allowed ourselves to be tied closer to the United States with the Auto Pact - everyone profited on both sides of the border but we were sinking from a much stronger position to a big brother little brother relationship. That continued and again in the early 1990s the pullback of American companies particularly in southern Ontario following NAFTA was a wakeup call which we answered with non-purchase of items that had been produced here under the Auto-Pact and other associated companies and the American Branch Plants returned to maintain that cohesive effect created in the mid1960s (realizing that their profits would dwindle very quickly if we did not purchase their products) but we were definitely on that track of much bigger brother and weaker little brother instead of creating our own industries which we could have done but did not. Now it is the mid 2020s and we are finally doing it, creating industries that have not happened because of government red tape; Ontario still dragging its feet somewhat as the leadership still dreams of this perfect relationship as they see it with our great friend and neighbour to the south. They remain our great friend and neighbour but the terms of friendship will change as we become much more capable of managing internally all of our ability to harness the land in the best way possible always looking for better ways to protect the environment but none the less creating a much stronger economic position for our industries. Quebec has been more independent creating new industry that is much more export intended around the world and we do need to get with that here in Ontario. I can not offer an opinion on other provinces because I do not live there but the need for our exports to increase around the world is huge. That and getting rid of the trade barriers between provinces that we created in order to make trade with the United States much smoother and easier to fit into our Management Systems. Although there was a slight contraction 0.3% of GDP in October it too is a wake up call to be cautious that we are buying Canadian or taking advantage of Free Trade deals that we have around the world in order to protect our much smaller Canadian industries and attract new capital because we are increasing our purchase of Canadian made products and industry likes to make money! However we continue, whilst the tariff rate is zero on CUSMA approved goods, to buy from our American friends and neighbours and in my case hundreds of cousins many of whom work in these industries. The New Year will bring a lot of attention to this Trade Deal reworked in 2019 and our increasing exports around the world to offset the current tariffs leveled against us and they are 35% or higher and one notes that our dollar still sits at 0.73 cents in American dollars which continues to benefit us around the world but not with tariffs where they are on some of our products - these tariffs are some of the largest against any country in the world but we will not buckle as we rework our exports to protect ourselves from these tariffs - the big aim of 2026 is to continue making ourself Tariff Proof.
A wonderful Christmas day with family and skiing was on the agenda - I had thought to skate although I have not skated in 20 years but the skates would have required us to unload the storage shed and that wasn't going to happen considering the first thing was digging our way through the snow that is piled in front of it. So skiing was what happened and it was great. I am trying a new balance exercise to help me to stay up on my feet at all times and I did yesterday. One stands on one foot and make circular motions with the other foot forward and back and you actually get the feel of skiing as you do that and I am close to the pillar that I can hang onto if I need to but I am up to 25 sets of back and forth (so 50 times) and will continue with that exercise which my daughter recommended. I was just standing on one foot for the count of one minute on each leg and I continue doing that as well. I also added in another exercise where I rise up on my toes and toss my arms straight up above me for a count of 40. I was already doing the toss up of my arms when I touch my toes 30 ties each morning but this is another new exercise and I am now up to 28 items on my early morning AM exercise (before breakfast) which includes 8x of walking for 200 steps between a number of the exercises. That registers as good exercise on my FitBit and I got a new one for Christmas so moving on from Charge 5 to Charge 6. I may actually activate the 6 month free premium membership to try it out. I will decide on that the next couple of days. I have eliminated NetFlix simply because I was never watching it and no one else was either so time to move on as that was something my husband really enjoyed and we would sit together and watch various programs that he enjoyed.
Today I may get some work done on Chromosome 15 and I spent a little time yesterday morning reviewing the matches between siblings to really look at these matches that I have at the beginning of Chromosome 15 in the common area. I believe that the small length that is calculated by most of the companies for one of my brothers matching me is likely too short to show up on the matches except occasionally. So that solves that particular item. Why I have so many early American colonial ancestors there is a mystery as this is a Buller/Taylor match. But I am perhaps concentrating in my mind too much on Buller and not enough on the Taylor which continues to likely be Irish and from Eire (the Irish Free State) as there was heavy immigration from Ireland to the American Colonies. I do have one significant Buller/Taylor match with a known Irish family that I may just start using in my mind to look at these matches. That match happens to be on Chromosome 1 but it gives me a picture of this match which is known to me on this First Chromosome. So not a lot accomplished with respect to that yesterday; but a good deal of thinking and reviewing the various databases crossover points.
Probably not shopping today because it will be incredibly busy although we might ski; time will tell.
Tea drank and solitaire puzzles completed. I noticed that my Word is an unlicensed product on this new computer although I purchased Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint 2016 and when I set up this new computer it appeared to accept that I had that particular item so not actually sure what that refers to although I am considering moving to their product which has a yearly price tag. As I get more and more into using AI in my data work I think moving to Microsoft 365 sounds like a good plan as I move forward with my publishing. The New Year should see me back at doing some writing.
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