Buy Canadian
Dear Editor:
While Prime Minister Mark Carney may not have gotten the best end of the deal with China for the soy bean/electric car agreement, I do understand his reasoning.
We are being forced by acting President Donald Trump to redirect more of our trade away from the United States, so we have to encourage investment in Canadian products by other countries.
Keep in mind, for those condemning the import of Chinese EVs because of the negative impact they “could” have on the Canadian auto industry, we are under no obligation to buy them. Besides, take a look around. The market here is saturated with overseas vehicles, representing over 34% of the market stake compared to 12% produced domestically, with no apparent concern about that.
Just take a clipboard and walk down the sidewalk, or through any parking lot. Put a tick on the page for each Mercedes, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, BMW, Kia, Audi, Volvo, Jaguar, Mazda, Tesla, Land Rover, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru and VW (I’m sure there’s more). Those owners are far more to blame for the demise of the Canadian auto industry than Carney’s China deal ever could be. We need to buy domestically, at least until the Canadian auto industry is strong enough to sustain itself again.
And 50% of vehicles purchased here are imported from the U.S.’s big-three automakers (Ford, GM and Dodge) – a “Trump” card to play during the free trade agreement negotiations. Those companies should be forced to produce a significant share of them here.
That has little to do with government intervention though; it all falls on the responsibility of the Canadian consumer. If the big-three continue pulling out, rather than retooling for other lines, then we should stop buying what they don’t make here until they reinvest in Canadian industry.
We have options. Toyota and Honda are the largest auto manufacturing employers in Canada now, and they are maintaining their commitment, so we should be encouraging them to invest here further, increasing their production into other popular lines that are currently held by import companies.
In order to do that, we need to show them that there is interest here in supporting Canadian-made vehicles. We provide a market, they provide employment.
Good paying jobs are diminishing in Canada. If you want your fancy German-made vehicle, or economy import, don’t complain when you no longer have your job to afford another one. Because every job here, in one way or another, supports everyone else’s.
If we don’t build it, we don’t buy it.
Paul Dunnill,
Fergus