A quick comment on the reaction by the media to China becoming the #1 exporter to US last week.

There is a little brother mentality within the halls of our policy-makers viz. Canada's relationship with the USA. What are the characteristics of a Little Brother mentality?

- Everything your older brother has you claim entitlement to
- Your relationship chemistry is 5 parts envy, 5 parts admiration
- Any friend of your older brother's is a competitor for what you feel you deserve
- Your older brother can do nothing to remove this sense of entitlement
- You are the most important part of the picture and expect selfless devotion from your older brother to compensate for your lack of seniority in the relationship.

Applying customer-centric marketing values, the relationship of a Little Sister would contribute more to the success of the relationship, esp. at a time when the older brother is going through some growing pains:

- You are not competing with your older Brother to achieve identical goals
- Your relationship is 5 parts admiration and 5 parts appreciation
- Any friend of your older brother's is a potential partner for you
- Your older brother can do nothing to threaten your sense of security
- You will support your big brother when he needs help to do what you can to improve his situation.

What positive steps could Canada take to advance its interests by being a better junior sibling to USA?

1. Distribution of Manufactured Goods: consider the obvious advantage of geography and the vastness of our border. Is it not possible to improve the lines of distribution of products into the US by expanding cross-border freight through dedicated Commercial points of access, with abundant warehousing at each locus of transportation? Our natural geographic advantage is being eroded by container ships carrying low-cost inventory. What if the Federal Govt. invested in dedicated Commercial highways of distribution to give our manufacturing sector economies of scale in the delivery of goods to the USA and a tax credit on transportation costs, it would be more convenient for USA companies to order just-in-time inventory through Canada and avoid transportation bottlenecks.

2. Extend these commercial lanes of distribution to China for efficient access to market for its low-cost, commodity products and plough back the tax levies into the manufacturing sector. Become a stock-piler for Chinese imports to US and exercise more control over the transactions.

3. Determine what your US customer priorities are and focus on how to deliver efficiencies and economies to sustain your relationship within your own manufacturing environment.

4. Trust in the value of the relationship, make this obvious and share the pain in order to reach the point where you can share the gain.

Canada is an abundant land which we can use to develop more efficient ways to serve the interests of the US. If we lose the sense of entitlement then we will not feel resentment when China demonstrates its advantages. Rather, we will be more dedicated to determining how to demonstrate our greater value by investing in infrastructure and business strategy to support the relationship and neutralize the factors that reduce our contribution to the business relationship with the US. Nothing is simple at the outset, but a change in mentality could herald in a long-term infrastructure investment that sees Canada as the main highway for distribution of products into the US.

The politics of little brother vs. little sister deal specifically with ego-centricity. Entitlement poisons the relationship and is the primary cause of all sibling rivalry. Using a customer-centric spin, where the customer is at the centre,and the relationship is nurtured 360º, might sound an idealistic view of a little sister relationship. But I always dreamed of having a little sister just like that.