"Wild And Wide"  [Reflections On Book  The Canadian Economy Series  A-04 - Transportation Sector]

Three factors given which we must calculate
When viewing transport – first is frozen lakes
For three to six months – shipping from the East
Is cheap, but rail must work three months at least.

The second, bulk and weight of what we ship –
Grain, iron, oil, our main ones – others sit
As a second string – sand, gravel, salt, and gas,
With logs and limestone, now as in the past.

Five hundred miles is breakpoint for a plane;
One hundred for a truck, but then again
The cost of fuel can shift this up-and-down;
For third – we’re spread out – scattered ’cross the ground.

When war was done, the feds sold off the fleet;
The Yanks did too, and they are prices beat;
We hitch a ride on merchant fleet not ours,
Price-takers we, as cost of it now sours.

Domestic ships, exempt from combine laws,
Collude on prices liners charge – the cause?
It would destabilize the service part,
So let them be, do not fresh trouble start.

The Crow Rate’s gone – land price soon factored in
This shift, so it’s no benefit – begin
To farm by taking benefit or cost
To you from times gone by, its sweetness lost.

Now buses are cut back; trains whistle through;
Trucks monitored on satellite – that’s new –
Need gas to crest a hill? Dispatch will choose –
To max the savings, or give fuel you’ll use.

The East is compact, West is wild and wide;
The global market gives a merry ride;
The refugees on leaky boats flee war,
’Till washed up babies ask, “What’s all this for?”

It’s oil – elixir of our transport ways –
To travel, bring us heat and cool our days;
Our carbon footprint’s heavy in our land
One winter west or north – you’ll understand.

Thanks Lord for this.

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