American Protectionism: Good or Bad during Economic Turmoil?

I am wanting opinions from other members here. We can name ourselves the Think Tank Society.

As the title states. Is now a good time to exercise Buy American only? With so many of the larger corporations already using outsourced labor, would the proposed Protectionist plan also include forcing Walmart and co to lay off their foreign workers to bring jobs back to America in the manufacturing sector? I doubt it.

The proposed plan created quite a stir in Canada where 80% of Canadian Exports go to America. Recently, the talk was regarding the steel industry; a billion dollar annual export deal for Canada which shipped 6.7 billion tons of steel to the US in the first 11 months of 2008. Previous disputes prior to any mention or evidence of an economic calamity include lumber and electricity. The lumber dispute has been a bone-of-contention for years now as the US lumber industry has tried to enforce a Buy American policy. One last resource worth mention is water. (On a side note, Australia also exports about $500 million of steel annually to America.)

On the flip side, Canada depends on America for its fresh produce especially during the winter months.

Canada is America's largest trading partner and vice versa. Would it be wise to sever the tie betwixt the two when both can help each other during the economic crisis?

So what do you think?