Image Credit: Flickr / Government of B.C.

By Doug Collins

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: You can’t have your cake and eat it, too

Jun 15, 2025 | 6:00 AM

THIS LITTLE ADAGE has been around for a while now. Maybe a better explanation of the phrase is “You can’t have it both ways.”

BC Ferries has announced four additions to its fleet will be built in China. As you might expect, there has been a hue and cry from all sides that we are spending billions to benefit a foreign country while we leave our own workers out in the cold. Fair point.

Also, it is a fair point to complain that we’re dealing with a country that has an abysmal human rights record. And yet we don’t have a problem negotiating deals with the United States, a country which, for now, may well have the worst human rights record on the planet, and has thrown us under the bus by implementing huge tariffs on Canadian goods going south, thus abandoning a relationship that has, until now, been one of the strongest and longest in the world.

Or this, from NDP cabinet minister Mike Farnworth: “Mike Farnworth says he’s worried about procuring services from ‘any country that is actively harming Canada’s economy’ with tariffs and protectionism.” (The Canadian Press)

Right.

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Conservative Finance Critic Peter Milobar was also critical of the agreement. I don’t disagree with Peter often, but in this case, I think the criticism is a little off base. Unions are against the contract because it takes away jobs from Canadian workers. SeaSpan, a big Canadian shipbuilder, didn’t bid on the project, saying it couldn’t compete cost-wise with the lower wages of the Chinese. But BC Ferries would likely want to keep costs down, so they went with the most cost-efficient solution.

The whole point today is to stress the fact that there has to be some give and take. Otherwise, no one moves ahead. Maybe the trade-off is an improved trade relationship with China, resulting in more jobs for B.C. workers. Who knows? You can try to get the best of everything but it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes there has to be a compromise, and you have to remember the words to the well-known Mick Jagger song, “You can’t always get what you want… but sometimes you get what you need.”

When we make deals, there are usually pluses and minuses. In this case, what we wanted isn’t what we got. Will it be worth it in the long run? I think we’ll leave that can of worms to open another day.

I’m Doug Collins and that’s One Man’s Opinion.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.