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Canada can’t afford to walk away from auto…
Speaking to reporters in Manila in the early hours of Saturday, Mark Carney was facing a lot of questions about autos, which must have been strange because he was announcing the conclusion of two new free trade deals, one with the Philippines and one with ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Those countries don’t buy our cars, though.
Actually, the Philippines doesn’t buy much from us at all. Scoring this free trade deal is good, and maybe they will buy more products from us eventually, but in 2025, two-way trade with them was just $3.4 billion, with $1.1 billion being Canadian exports and $2.3 billion being imports.
So, as Carney announced this deal, reporters had plenty of questions about the auto industry back home. That’s understandable given the size of the industry. It employs tens of thousands and is our third-biggest export after energy and then metals, minerals and such.
There were some questions about the Stellantis plant closure in Brampton, but I’ll leave that aside for now.
Why autos dominated the conversation…
What caught my ear were questions from CTV’s Graham Richardson and Bloomberg’s Brian Platt. Richardson was asking about the future of the Canadian auto industry given difficulties with the Americans, and Platt was asking about Chinese manufacturing coming to Canada.
Carney said there is some progress being made with the Americans and said they won’t sign a deal that harms Canada’s auto industry. It was the most positive I’ve heard him on that front in quite a while and, on the flip side, it was the least bullish that I’ve heard him on China.
“This government will not settle for a deal with the United States that does not is not consistent with a viable Canadian auto sector,” Carney said.
“There’s lots of people think that you know we should just go and take whatever deal or did this is one of the fundamental issues in our trade negotiation and we are making progress towards that.”
Rejecting the Australian model…
That’s good to hear, and good to hear that he refuted the idea behind Richardson’s question that we should abandon the auto industry the way Australia did decades ago. There was nothing wrong with Richardson’s question. I keep hearing people make the claim that we should abandon it.
I fundamentally disagree with that position, and it was good to hear Carney say so as well.
There is a problem, though, when Honda is investing billions in the United States and creating new jobs but investing mostly government money in Canada to save jobs.
This is why we need a solution and why we need a deal, but one that doesn’t abandon auto, including medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
I’d sooner trust gas station sushi (I don’t even like sushi) than anything Carney says or does. He’s not exactly known for telling the truth about anything.
It’s simple actually. The USA automakers have been winding down Canadian operations for decades.
Canada is not a good country for investment. Taxation ,onerous regulations, and stifling government policies are the root cause.
Even a worthless Canadian dollar can’t save it.
When I first moved to Oshawa in 1975 GM were the biggest game in town.
They were good to us all ,as an employer. Farmers. Contractors. Just plain folks . We flourished.
Ford ,Oakville ; Detroit diesel ,St Thomas , a GM engine plant St Catherine’s , and Chrysler Windsor.
One by one they left.
Now we starve
The treatment of a near bankrupt Stellantis over a plant that hadn’t operated for ! THREE YEARS! By Carney and the hapless foot soldier Jolie?
The message is clear. Canada doesn’t welcome any business anymore.
“USA is a security threat worse than China “ says Carney.
Thanks for nothing.
Solution. Dump Carney! make a trade deal, toss regulation and onerous taxation out , and STFU
Negotiate
Plead for forgiveness.
Otherwise we are UK.
We must be like Poland