US automakers broke their deals on running factories here. We have no native auto brands (other than attempted startups) building factories.
No need to protect US brand pricing anymore, let’s make cars affordable to Canadians
I agree with the sentiment, but there are a bunch of US car factories still running in Canada, despite Stellantis breaking their agreement.
The federal and Ontario governments will need to balance: keeping the jobs associated with existing factories, attracting Chinese factories, lowering costs for Canadian consumers, dealing with climate change, and placating Trump.
I don’t envy them.
Yup. That’s a difficult balancing act. Thing is, nobody wants North American cars except North Americans. The rest of the world is going to EVS while we spend billions (which Stellantis is still in debt for IIRC) propping up and industry that has retrenched back to huge gas guzzlers.
It is reminiscent of the 1970s energy crisis. We bailed out Chrysler (and Ford?) while they surrendered market to smaller, more efficient, European and Japanese imports.
From what I can tell, car manufacturers outside North America are quietly being gobbled up by Chinese companies. Some of those manufacturers are producing EVs, which are often paid for with government subsidies. Meanwhile, we’re rolling back those subsidies and failing to build our EV infrastructure.
Seriously? your government can’t or won’t acknowledge the challenges of transitioning to renewables oriented vehicles so you complain that foreign companies aren’t investing to create the infrastructure you need. This, while you double down on oil sands, gas guzzlers from mercan designers and indicate in every way possible that you’re not interested in EVs.
… and failing to build our EV infrastructure
is it still a failure if it’s intentional?
Canadian auto-parts companies need to join together to make a Canadian car company. They built a demonstrator model, time to put that knowledge to work.
You could probably just buy Stellantis for a fiver. A lot of the Ontario factories are theirs anyway. You could even let Bombardier run it and there’s no way they can do worse than the way it’s currently being run.
the mexicans are doing it; the canadians should too.
Can we also make housing affordable again?
… let’s make cars affordable to Canadians
this is the first time in life that i envied canadians. lol
God forbid regular people can afford to buy a daily driver EV
No it is Canada’s duty to protect the sacred North American institutions of F150 and Ram /s
This actually made me laugh. Thank you, I needed it.
GET YOUR HAND OFF MY CAUCUS!
Please just give:
Cars with buttons and dials. No touch screens other than maybe a GPS exclusive screen.
Cars that can be fixed relatively easily.
Safety(Cars aren’t really safe, but its what we have to deal with so…make them smaller with clear lines of sight, etc).
These are my dreams, I guess. I doubt you can honestly get anything close to that in 2026. Also as if I would be able to afford anything new when cost of living has skyrocketed lol.
Cars that can handle the winter weather, traction control and ground clearance
Heated everything
Copypasta:
We should be reducing our import of Chinese developed technology, “smart” devices, phones, and EVs in particular. Every Chinese business big enough to play at the global scale has the government in it’s power structure. They don’t necessarily dictate business decisions but every bit of data collected is by default accessible by the government.
Having a significant fraction of a country driving around in Chinese EVs gives an insane amount of information to the Chinese government for free. And it’s not just direct information either like the driver’s identity, with millions of cars on the road a lot can be inferred, like if the parking lots at military bases suddenly fill up on a Tuesday afternoon or traffic between a high value person’s home and an airport gets unusually slow.
Cars have cellular modems, they have wifi and bluetooth hardware, if a particular person’s device was identified, for example, at a political meeting then that person could be trivially tracked by the dozens of Chinese cars and “smart” devices that they pass in a day. The information could be smuggled home along with all the normal diagnostic, update and service info. It is not in our best interest to let the Chinese government track individuals, be it politicians, expats, or activists.
This could be done today by the our government, and it is to some extent, to identify, and locate, protesters and criminals by their mobile devices but it takes time and access to equipment and logs that the government does not always own. A competent adversary who owns millions of devices in your country can do in seconds what takes law enforcement weeks to accomplish via conventional means.
Remember that China was caught operating their own “police” force around the world not long ago, they will take advantage of any opportunity they are given to spy on other countries and gain political control.
China doesn’t plan for the next fiscal quarter they plan for the next quarter century, and Canada’s resources are in their sights.
Yes, this is incredibly non-controversial. Which cars do you replace them with? American ones?
Europe, Japan, Korea. They have their own problems too but it’s the USA and China that are actively threatening Canada.
It’s bizarre because the scales have really tipped.
3 years ago, China wanted to directly interfere with Canada for the purpose of stacking the government to be more “Pro-China”, and that’s an active threat for sure. The USA just wanted favorable trade conditions and general support on the world stage.
Fast forward to now, the USA is actively trying to destabilize and divide Canada. They want a weaker nation. Seed dissert. Makes the country easier to push around. China… still obviously wants Canada to be more “Pro-China”, but for Canada to be what they want… they still want a strong Canada. A strong Canada could be a vocal counterbalance. One in disarray can not.
So, while it’s true that both countries are actively threatening Canada, their idealized vision for a Canada that can be exploited are basically polar opposites. A strong Canada willing to break ranks w/ the USA, vs a fractured weakened country thar can’t afford to.
Insightful.
I’d add that our opinions, like mine, have been heavily influenced by pro-US and anti-China propaganda by American and pro-American actors for a long time. I only started noticing it over the last couple of years. Now it’s obvious as day. Not saying there’s nothing to worry about. Just musing on our collective opinion towards China.
China does not want a strong Canada. A strong Canada might speak out about Taiwan and demand change before making trade deals. A strong Canada will look for more ethical but expensive trade partners in Europe.
The US wants Canada directly for resources, China wants a scared Canada who is willing to take any deal just to get some stability.
I agree with the ultimate goal (getting Canadian support, or at the very least Canadian silence).
I disagree about how it could possibly achieve those ends.
A weak Canada becomes little more than a US puppet. Full stop. Based on proximity, relative cultural similarities, and trade dependence, that’s the inevitable result. Nothing China could ever do could alter that outcome. A weakened Canada folds into the US in global matters. If that happens, China has lost before the game even begins.
It’s a strict prerequisite that Canada be able to absorb the reprocussions of breaking ranks with the USA if you want Canada to break ranks with the USA. A stable, economically diversified Canada CAN. Otherwise it CAN’T.
So “can they” is the first hurdle for China. The second is “will they”. That’s where this is all playing out. Over the last… I dunno, 4 years, they’ve been working on the “will they” by getting cozy with politicians.
Right now, they’re at significant risk of backsliding from a “will they” situation back to a “can they” situation.
The USA has a much shorter path. They don’t have to compete for “will they (side with USA)” if they can merely make it so that “can they (break ranks)” becomes unfeasible based on economic and political turmoil.
See when trump says paid actors are protesting him, i think he’s funding this kind of shit.
Did you never care until Trump that you were buying so many US cars? What threat is China to Canada?
Remember that whole thing where they interfered with elections and were policing expats from China? That never stopped.
Policing expats, sure. But what about this election interference?
Well, I hope next time they will make the “socialist” NDP win then.
They are one of the most powerful world players and xenophobes, they are an existential threat to everyone.
Why pick characteristics indistinguishable between China and the US lol
American isn’t xenophobic, well, current American leadership might be.
The US? Absolutely. China? Lol.
Bicycle
I do around town but a 30km commute to a 12hr shift is not really viable.
Aint no way am I willing or even able to bike 50km to work each way in the winter.
