[AlecSchueler]

> recently Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management moved their head office from Toronto to New York

That sounds like the kind of decision that would take way more turnaround time to implement than the month or two of uncertainty we've had.

> Large corporations don't care about nationalism/patriotism, they just go where the money is.

And it's not about nationalism, it's about certainty as was claimed above. Long term that's a necessity for profit.

[FirmwareBurner]

>That sounds like the kind of decision that would take way more turnaround time to implement than the month or two of uncertainty we've had.

Maybe, but the end result is still Canada loosing and US winning.

>And it's not about nationalism, it's about certainty as was claimed above. Long term that's a necessity for profit.

Good democracy and certainty don't go together very well most of the time. It's a feature of democracy, not a bug. The best regimes for certainty are autocratic ones like the CCP, Saudi Arabia, etc where citizens don't have a say. I for one value democracy more then the quarterly profits of soulless corporations who would gladly make the world burn for profit.

[AlecSchueler]

> Maybe, but the end result is still Canada loosing and US winning.

It is but when the discussion is about businesses racing a certain way to decisions made by a government that's only been in power for two months then it's misleading to focus on a decision made before that time.

> Good democracy and certainty don't go together very well most of the time. It's a feature of democracy, not a bug.

Good democracy? I'm not sure how loaded that phrase is but, regardless, doing business with the US has seemed a lot more certain for at least the past 20 election cycles than it does today. The current government, whether or not its behaviour is indicative (for you) of a "good democracy," is an outlier in terms of looking friendly to businesses or other investors looking to trade there.

[FirmwareBurner]

What's "good for business" is orthogonal to people's votes and wishes in a free democracy, since things like slavery and destroying the environment are also "good for business" but voters might not like them.

In other words, people have the freedom to choose candidates who make decisions that are also bad for business. That's the amazing perk of having a completely free democracy (yes that includes letting the people vote bad candidates who make bad decisions) which you'll only appreciate when you don't have that freedom (ask me how I know).

[AlecSchueler]

The US must have the greatest democracy, then, since now both businesses and individuals seem to be suffering.

[FirmwareBurner]

Who said perfect democracy guarantees perfect results for everyone? Wouldn't that be an ideal utopia. Democracy means people's freedom of choice regardless of how imperfect they are.

And yes, it's better than everything else out there, like someone else establishing who you get to vote for, "for your own protection", but you're too clueless to see it.

[ben_w]

> like someone else establishing who you get to vote for, "for your own protection"

Isn't that exactly what's wrong with the US system, parties, primaries, etc. all results in the national choice being between two candidates decided by small minorities (party members)?