The idea that the US is somehow going to take all our shipping traffic if we add 3 cents more (or even slightly less cost) to the cost of gasoline is a pretty bizarre argument, and one that seems to have holes big enough to drive the better part of a blitzkrieg through

It's also the sort of thing that only makes sense if *we haven't been improving our rail capacity, the sort of thing that the US has been doing over the past 4 years*

ie

regardless whether or not our price of gasoline is 3 cents more, or the same as it is today relative to the US price... the cost of shipping is going to be steadily growing relatively more expensive the more the US invests in their long-haul infrastructure and the more we treat it as given that ours will be as good as it will ever be

but at the same time: the cost of extra north-south distance to 'avoid' gas taxes in canada get expensive in a hurry, and unless canada is banking on the shipping from europe or asia/the middle east to eachother (without crossing central europe)...it's unclear what else would be affected in any substantial way