So it seems that if you really like a V-8, or indeed any car that might take you 500 miles without refuelling, you have 12 years to get one and enjoy it. That’s the net effect of regulations published by the Trudeau Liberals yesterday, outlawing the sale of new gasoline or diesel-powered cars after 2035.For now, it is just ‘new’ cars. But, see the end of this column for where this could so easily lead.Meanwhile, it is one more step in what the prime minister and his inner circle views as their great moral crusade, to enforce their peculiar vision of what Canada should be like upon Canadians they regard as too stupid, dumb or bloody-minded to ever choose it in a free election. Keep in mind, when the Trudeau Liberals successfully campaigned in 2015, they were all about looking out for Syrian refugees, supporting the middle class and legalizing marijuana. Climate change was in the small print.Now we see the mentality in full Technicolor: We know best, you know least and by glory and thunder, you’ll do it our way.That was the Steven Guilbeault subtext throughout the COP28 conference. Not for nothing did Premier Danielle Smith call him out for his attitude.And today, for similar reasons of constitutionality (and morality) she condemns his intentions to restrict Albertans’ choice of cars.How can this play out?First, constitutional or not, the power of the Government of Canada to shake the confidence of motor manufacturers is comparable to their power to discourage oil and gas investment. It’s not the regulations: This government may well be swept away in 22 months — or less — and a different government can dismantle these regulations.No, it’s the uncertainty. The Liberals could be back four years later, or in eight, and the merry-go-round starts again. Meanwhile, it takes years to design a car and tool up a production line. So, once those guys in Windsor-Detroit make the switch, they’re not coming back. (Hence the Liberal haste on this and in so much else on their environmental agenda. Break things now; the Conservatives will never have time to put them back together.)What the Conservatives could do is scrap, or at least not enforce the 2035 deadline and the scale-up targets before it.That way, those who want a gas car can import it from somewhere that still makes them — India perhaps, the world’s fourth-largest auto-manufacturer — where a polite interest in electric vehicles is nevertheless tempered by the understanding that the electricity to power them still originates with fossil fuels.Sort of like Alberta and Saskatchewan really.So, a putative Pierre Poilievre government could do that. And people whose daily commute requires something more robust than a steroid golf cart will be served. Meanwhile, those of us who maintain and care for our old gas jobs will find that for once they have an appreciating asset, the closer they get to 2035. People will still want them.Whether Canadian auto manufacturers will appreciate such a federal commitment to consumer choice once they’re fully invested in making electric vehicles, is another matter. When evs are all they have to sell, Canada's carmakers may well become the electric vehicle's strongest boosters.Meanwhile, what if we buy a new gasoline-powered car in 2035, intending to drive it forever? We should not be blind to the other measures available to a truly activist Liberal government should it ever return untempered by its years in opposition, and decides to make a last and spiteful pass at those who have done that. They can make gasoline harder to find, costlier to buy, parts harder to procure… It would be heavy-handed but they could simply legislate them off the road.And the blowback would mean nothing. You say ‘heavy-handed,’ they hear ‘firm, decisive leadership.’You know, like in China.Bottom line. I have nothing against electric cars. I’ll drive one before I take public transit. And as far as performance goes, zero to sixty in 3.1 seconds with a Tesla 3 is fine. See you at the lights.But here is what I was warning about in the first paragraph.Does Ottawa or anybody else have a plan to generate the power it’s going to take to not only take home heating all-electric, but also to keep bringing in half a million power-hungry immigrants a year and for everybody to use their electric vehicles the way they use their gas-powered cars?They say they do, but electricity will cost (much) more. But if they’re wrong and the plan doesn’t work, is the fallback position that you only use your car for short trips on odd days? You know, like when they’re clearing smog before a conference in China?What if that’s the activist hope, even if it’s not the declared plan?With these people, you can’t be sure.This Liberal party needs to be decimated, and repopulated with people — real Liberals in the Chretien mold, not commie activists under a false flag — who actually want to do good things for the people of Canada.Please. Soon. .Due to a high level of spam content being posted in our comment section below, all comments undergo manual approval by a staff member during regular business hours (Monday - Friday). Your patience is appreciated.
