Oftentimes, politics is high comedy. In the last couple of days, the premier of Ontario Doug Ford made some comments about the trade deals with China that PM Carney signed. All of a sudden Ford is concerned about US trade with northern states and about security wrt Chinese EVs. But it was Ford who mused about cutting off hydro power to those same states a while ago. As far as security info in the cars, it is it any worse than our exposure on the various tech sites. Besides, they already build Teslas and Volvo EVs in China, not to mention iPhones and almost everything at Walmart. If you're going to rant, please at least make it plausible.
The funniest was the US ambassador to Canada Hoekstra whining about Canada making deals with China and Qatar. I don't have the exact quote from him because I don't care. The US has been trading with China for decades, what's his problem now if Canada does. Makes no sense. As for Qatar, is he worried Canada might get a nicer airplane than Trump did.
The stated import of smaller EVs from China represents a minuscule number of vehicles and the vehicles involved are small urban runabouts, sub $35,000, that no one else makes anyway. It will not affect the sales of any pick-up trucks. As for worrying about Chinese auto imports, we went through all this bullshit in the 1970s when people freaked over the importation of Japanese cars. Do we really have to go through that nonsense again? All the current auto plants in Canada originate from another country, and recently Trump has threatened to shut down the Canadian plants of US manufacturers. So, what's the issue, exactly. If Ford/GM/the other one leave, then a Chinese company can take over the plant. That's what foreign investment is.
I suspect that Ford's outburst has more to do with him positioning himself in the federal Conservative party for any future leadership run. He has to virtue signal to get attention. Also, if he moves to the federal arena, he can shut down bicycle lanes across the country, not just Ontario. In case you didn't know, the province of Ontario gave itself the power to shut down bike lanes in any Ontario city even if that city deems them beneficial. Given that the provincial government in the past has tried to download responsibility for some services to the municipalities, make you wonder why they are reversing themselves in that particular aspect.
