Doug Ford asks Ontarians to boycott Chinese EVs

Premier Doug Ford is asking Ontarians to boycott Chinese electric vehicles, further condemning a deal made by Prime Minister Mark Carney in Beijing last week.

“I’ve been clear about my concerns with this deal,” Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park on Wednesday.

“By opening up our country to a flood of cheap made-in-China vehicles, the federal government is asking Canadian auto workers to compete on unfair ground.”

The deal was finalized during Carney’s trip to China, where Carney met with President Xi Jinping and agreed to allow up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) into Canada this year at a tariff rate of 6.1 per cent rather than the 100 per cent tariff Canada implemented in 2024 alongside the United States.

In exchange, China has promised to lower duties on canola seed and some seafood products. China had previously imposed a 100 per cent tariff on Canadian canola oil, meal and seeds.

Carney touted the deal during a speech to the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Tuesday in Davos, Switzerland, describing Canada as a “middle power” that must build coalitions with nations on an issue-by-issue basis as a result of a “new world order” spurred by U.S. President Donald Trump, who regularly imposes tariffs and has called the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement “irrelevant.”

Since being elected, Carney has travelled the world in an effort to diversify Canada’s trading partners so it’s less reliant on the United States.

But Ford, and representatives from Ontario’s auto sector, said on Wednesday that those deals shouldn’t benefit one sector over another.

“None of this is easy in terms of how you reach a deal with a mammoth like China,” Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, told reporters.

“The point being is that we need to go into these negotiations and make sure that we are putting our best foot forward, protecting everyone … that we can but not getting caught into this situation where we’re trading off one part of the country for the other, one sector for the other,” Payne added.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who travelled with Carney to China, disagreed with that concept. On Tuesday, he said that agriculture is a Canadian industry and “to say this is favouring one province over another, that’s just simply not a true statement.”

Ford didn’t announce additional support for the auto sector on Wednesday, but told reporters he wants the prime minister to “consult with us” and eliminate the federal EV mandate.

“We need to align Canada’s regulations with key trading partners and scrap federal fees that make it more expensive to build and buy made-in-Ontario vehicles,” he said, adding that he’s “very, very disappointed” in Carney’s deal.

The premier said he’s spoken with Industry Minister Mélanie Joly a few times since the Canada-China deal was made. While he hasn’t spoken with Carney directly, Ford said he hopes the prime minister hasn’t given up on further integrating Canada’s auto industry with the U.S., which the premier has repeatedly pitched since his election campaign as part of a “Fortress AmCan” that would see both nations work closer together across multiple sectors.

Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, agreed.

“There is no industry without U.S. access and North American integration,” Kingston said, adding that the deal with China presents a risk to that goal. “The future of Canada’s auto industry and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that it supports depends on securing our trade relationship with the United States.”

International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu, meanwhile, told reporters earlier in the day that Ottawa needs to “take off our rose-coloured glasses and look at the world as it is.” That, he said, should guide Canada’s relationships with other nations.

“You’ve got to look at the economic security of Canadians first and foremost. We promised Canadians that we’d bring opportunities to Canada, we’d be able to put food on their table by creating those jobs and bringing those industries to Canada,” Sidhu said. “We may not agree with everyone in the world and that’s ok but we need to be able to have a seat at the table.”

Trump gave his own speech at the WEF on Wednesday, days after he shared a picture online of American Stars and Stripes blanketing both Canada and Greenland. In it, Trump warned Carney that he should be “grateful” to the U.S.

“Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also, but they’re not. I watched your prime minister yesterday, he wasn’t too grateful,” Trump said at the WEF. “Canada lives because of the U.S. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

Ford said, “It’s disappointing to see (Trump) on a full attack,” given how integrated the two nations’ supply chains are.

“You don’t attack your closest friend, your closest neighbour, and your number one customer in the world.”

Meanwhile, Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said she’s still waiting for the premier to present a plan to protect jobs in the auto sector.

“You know, the premier is pretty good at stunts. But the question is, can he take this very serious message that so many workers are counting on him to deliver to the prime minister this week.”

Carney is expected to meet with Canada’s premiers on Jan. 29. – tbnewswatch.com

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A couple of points:

• nobody is buying EVs.  What market there was has all but dries up. I wouldn’t take one even if it was given to me.
• most vehicles being manufactured today are crap. It does not matter who makes them.
• Canadian built crap or Chinese built crap, in the end its still crap.
• if you intend on buying crap, cheaper crap is better than expensive crap. People might pay extra for a quality product but that is not we we have here.
• I can’t to afford to buy either.
• cars are too expensive.  There needs to be a cheaper option that what we are being offered.

Look, Canada is too small a market to have its own auto industry.  Its the truth. We depend completely on the US market.  100%. The US calls the shots as far as that goes.

The US has already shown that it cannot be trusted to be an honest partner. You cannot depend on the US  honoring any trade agreement any government makes with it.

If the US wanted to, it can shut down the Canadian auto industry completely. Might take a year or two but it can easily be done.

Sooo, what do you do?

Australia used to have an auto industry. Now they don’t. Maybe our politicians need to look at what happened there and how that country dealt with the plant closure.  See what happened to the workers.

China will dominate the global auto industry shortly.  To keep their cars out of the country, we Canadians will have to be willing to pay double for a car made in Canada versus one made in China.  In times of financial hardship this is a hard ask of people who are already struggling..

Ontario use to manufacture everything you needed.  Tires, appliances, TVs, clothes…everything.  Slowly, all those manufacturing jobs were allowed to move overseas.  No effort was made to stop them.  Nothing.

Nobody cared about all those workers who made washing machines and refrigerators losing their jobs.  Nobody cared when the tire plants closed.  Nobody.

Why are autoworkers soo special?  I just do not understand.

Over the years, governments have poured billions of taxpayer dollars into the auto industry.  To keep those jobs here in Ontario. In Canada.  Are we willing to keep doing that?  For how long? How much are we willing to give those big US corporations to keep their plants in Canada operating?

Are those jobs worth it?   Why those and not the others?

Today, everything we have is made outside the country. Mostly China but also Inia, Thailand, Vietnam…basically Southeast Asia. The items are cheap.

People will vote with their pocketbook.  They always have and always will.