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.
Trump says he wants every car sold in the United States to be made domestically.
The old integrated cross-border auto manufacturing system is over. Stellantis is already moving production of Jeep from Brampton to Illinois, and others are expected to follow.
Outages suck but for me this service has been rock solid. Much better uptime and more capable than the cellular broadband service that it replaced (Bell Canada) at a similar cost
I don't know how close to withdrawing from NATO the US actually is, but people are talking about it. The aggressive stance the US President has towards two NATO members makes it seem like it could happen soon.
Tying NDP support to their leader's pension is silly/lazy.
As part of their deal with the Liberals, the NDP had some real power to implement legislation. If an election happened tomorrow the NDP would lose that power.
Unhitching from Trudeau at this moment is a good move for the NDP, they want to distance themselves from Trudeau's unpopularity before the next election. That Trudeau is now leaving benefits them even more, they could conceivably continue to support the government now that it's missing its most unpopular member, or they could pull the plug right away if they think they can steal away some Liberal votes during a snap election
> Tying NDP support to their leader's pension is silly/lazy.
It really isn't - the alternative is it's the most unbelievable happy coincidence.
You have to wonder how blatant the personal moneygrabbing by Lib and NDP leaders has to be before their respective support bases actually accept what is going on in their faces. Those leaders see the parties purely as a way to secure power to use to gain personal wealth at the expense of the populous.
> the alternative is it's the most unbelievable happy coincidence
It's not though.The NDP were faced with two choices:
1) Support the Liberals and get some of their policies pushed through
2) Support the Conservatives wish to call an early election in which the Conservative are sure to win a majority leaving the NDP powerless
The reason why the NDP choose this moment to pull their support is that it's an election year, so there's little chance any more NDP policy would be passed. One person's pension (a relatively wealthy person at that) is just a fun partisan talking point for Conservatives.
It's important to note that some of the key people who were behind these protests were not truckers, but were involved in earlier attempts at mass protest in Ottawa as part of the 'yellow vests' group from 2019
