The whole cheesecake is cut up into uneven slices, each one representing a different sector of the economy. Then each slice is covered to varying degrees with cherries, depending on how exposed it is to international trade pressures. If 50 percent of an industry's market depends on imports and exports, then its slice is 50 percent covered in cherries. If 10 percent of the market depends on international trade competition, then its slice is 10 percent covered, and so on. The Canadian economic cheesecake is depicted in the accompanying figure.
Cherries cover three-quarters of the resources slice, and over half of the manufacturing slice.
Most of the output in both these sectors is destined for foreign markets-and by the same token, many of our purchases of both these types of products are imported. Most private services are produced and consumed close to home-and those private services account for a huge chunk of our economy. Fast food meals, for instance, are very difficult to import. Big Macs are unappetizing enough after traveling from the warming rack to the table, let alone after being transported from some export processing zone. The remaining two slices of the cake, construction and public services, essentially have no cherries on them at all.