Canada is not really independent of the USA. The better way to view this is that Canada is like California. This is not a battle between countries but an internal civil conflict within the hegemony.
And your reply does not touch on the 'unkind' portion of my comment. Why should those workers suffer more than they already have?
No capitalist market country is independent of any other country in the 21st century and for most of the 20th. This isn't saying much, it's just a matter of degrees.
Yes, Canada is economically integrated with the US to a massive degree and we're each other's biggest trading partners. But the analogy with California is a totally false one.
They are a US state subject to its federal laws and political system. We are not.
We maintain political independence, and need to maintain that independence.
'We maintain political independence, and need to maintain that independence.'
By allowing EVs from China?
You would think if you wanted to be independent you would have your own EV car company. If EVs are the future and Canada cannot make competitive EVs with china this means Canada will not have an auto sector. Given that there are hundreds of thousands of people working in this area it doesnt actually bode well for Canadians.
I am actually Canadian this is why I am so familiar with the situation.
I think we're in substantial agreement but Canada has this sickness in all sectors which seems to stop us from authoring our own destiny, some of it is cultural but I think the bulk of it is economic. Most investors here don't take risks because they're busy living low-risk parasitical lives off the resource export and real estate industries.
I would love a Canadian EV company to exist because I'd love to work there as a software engineer.
You will guarantee that there is no EV manufacturing in Canada if you allow for wholesale important of offshore EVs. Just as there is no manufacturing of almost anything else within Canada.
You are literally advocating for something that is against your own desires.
I don't think it's so clear cut. The US auto sector packing up and leaving and taking the auto parts manufacturing world with it -- which is what's happening now anyways -- wouldn't exactly create massive opportunities here, either.
Who would buy these EVs if we build them in Canada?
The Canadian market cannot support a car company without exporting the majority of production. The US is our largest natural market and does not want our auto exports. It's unclear why other markets would want our EVs either.
Artificial barriers to protect an industry where we don't have an advantage (autos) which results in tariffs on a sectors where we do (agricultural products, resources) isn't sustainable or desirable.
Unfortunately that (rip and ship energy / resource exporter economy) is what the conservative party wants, what the political leadership in the prairie provinces want, and it's what the US wants for us. And it's hinted at increasingly by Carney ("energy superpower") etc. You're right it's myopic and not good.
But parent poster is correct that blindly subsidizing and funding a local industry with no market will also just lead to boondoggles and failures.
Especially in the context of an uncooperative trading partner which could have been a potential export market for our production in the past but now is a hostile state trying to break apart national unity and destroy what little manufacturing sector successes we have.
We've already had major issues around the massive battery construction plants proposed here in Ontario and Quebec, that got major government support and investment.
Unfortunately this is the very difficult place the manufacturing sector in Canada finds itself in. And the Canadian working class as a whole.
I wouldn't call it myopic to be skeptical here. If there was an easy answer Canada would have taken it decades ago.
I mean if you just control your borders you dont need government investment and support. This is the backwards way of creating tariffs. The problem is that it is asymmentric. A larger country can do that way better than a smaller. Aka they could make their product cost zero if they really want.
I hate to say it but the boondoggles of Canada are just graft. These arent investments in any real sense.
As for this line 'Unfortunately this is the very difficult place the manufacturing sector in Canada finds itself in. And the Canadian working class as a whole.'
look this is just neoliberalism. Maybe stop doing that and things will suck less.
It doesn't matter what you or I want. How much money do you think the Canadian government should put behind a domestic auto maker? 10s of billions? 100s of billions?
How much are 125k manufacturing jobs in Ontario worth? Are there no better economic sectors that we can build up?
Iver heard its 700k total but lets not quibble.
The value of economic development is difficult to measure in the mere wages or size of total industry (I mean here we are still definitely talking 10s of billons) It is the total contribution to the complexity of the economy. I think people are extremely confused about economic development because they are trained to view the world as mobile capital.
It might simply be that Canada cannot compete in any market. You have a very interesting choice at this stage. Do you A. not have an economy or B. have an economy that may require some sheltering from the world.
A mobile capitalist wants A. A human that is bound to the country probably wants B.
The problem for Canada is that it is so heavily integrated with the United States economy and so heavily dependent on trade with the United States that it is susceptible to a level of coercion that seriously calls its sovereignty into question.
Up until Trump, Canadians viewed the United States as a friendly country, and had a hard time imagining that the US would actually employ its massive leverage in a malicious way. The most concerning thing for Canadians should not be that Trump has tried to employ this leverage against Canada, but that Americans haven't risen up in revolt against this attack on a friendly country. Canada cannot rely on the US being a friendly country in the future, even if Trump does leave office in 2029 (which he is already suggesting he may not do).
So legally speaking, yes, Canada is not like California. Canada is formally an independent country. But practically speaking, unless Canada takes drastic measures, it may become more like California than like an independent country, for all practical intents and purposes.
Canada has a toothless EV mandate that is actively undermined by both its own domestic auto industry which on the whole is basically refusing to make them -- and when they do price them only as luxury vehicles.
But also by its political right, and at least one of its national newspapers which is continually running anti-EV FUD. Not the least because our second largest sector in the country (after manufacturing) is oil&gas, and the energy sector is the most powerful political-economic block in the country and the source of ideological power & influence in the western half of the country.
Similar tensions in the US.
There are active disinformation campaigns about EVs running constantly, and if you follow the money it always ends up back at the petroleum sector.
Why dont Canadian consumers switch to EVs naturally? Probably because they are more expensive and lack the capacity of existing vehicles. Its not that hard it is simple economics.
There is no longer any justification for EVs to be as expensive as they are is the problem.
Prices for batteries have plummeted and they're the only expensive component of an electric car so why do we still only see EVs in the luxury vehicle price tier / category?
The North American auto industry refuses to produce a low cost EV.
Although the Bolt is coming back, so that's good I guess. Too bad it's made in the US so I won't touch it.
Canada literally has an EV mandate: https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transportation/innovative-techn...
Canada has also worked on developing an EV industry: https://electricautonomy.ca/ev-supply-chain/manufacturing/20...