David Marsden is a Calgary writer and editor.Very seldom do the interests of Western Canada align with those of the Laurentian elites. Certainly, the automotive manufacturing industry of Central Canada is significant and depends upon a tight relationship between Canada and the United States.So, when American President Joe Biden announced a 100 per cent tariff on the importation of electric vehicles from China, it was only a matter of time until the Justin Trudeau government fell into line. The elaborate systems of production are so intertwined, it would be difficult for Canada to create a separate path from our largest trading partner.What’s so telling, of course, is Trudeau’s tariff announcement has goaded the Chinese into threatening a quarrelsome antidumping challenge against Canadian canola — accusing our country of flooding the global market with the agriculture product.So once again, Western Canada, where the bulk of canola is produced, must worry about a sucker punch from China, so Central Canada can benefit.The same thing happened in 2019, when Ottawa arrested technology company executive Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the Americans. The ensuing two-year ban of canola exports to China from Canada’s two largest producers cost the economy $2 billion, much of it felt and paid for in Western Canada.“In Alberta, we have 14,000 amazing farmers that grow canola over 6,685,992 acres of farmland. Canola isn’t just the beautiful yellow crop you see in fields across this province — canola is a versatile, renewable, sustainable, affordable, nutritious, economic driver of Alberta and Canada,” says Alberta Canola, the growers’ industry group.The entire notion of a tariff on Chinese electric vehicles seems surreal. Our federal government has dictated that all vehicles sold by 2035 must be EVs. And yet, the same government is ensuring the cost of the cars is beyond the reach of most Canadians.The Parliamentary Budget Officer recently said the price of EVs would have to drop by at least 31 per cent to meet the government’s goal of having EVs form 60 per cent of sales by 2030.The same parliamentary officer estimated federal government financial support for EVs at $31.4 billion and provincial government support at $21.1 billion.So it’s just the Chinese who are subsidizing the manufacturing of EVs? Not Canada and America? The Parliamentary Budget Officer figures taxpayers are chipping in more than $6 billion in subsidies than the companies themselves are ponying up. Those are expensive publicly funded jobs, when Canadian Prairie farmers again face possible ruin because of Ottawa’s malfeasance.Common sense, more affordable EVs would encourage their adoption by consumers. Yet, the Liberals are moving in the opposite direction: putting a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese automotive imports many Canadians could afford, and funneling billions of dollars into subsidies for Central Canada’s uncompetitive industry.Is this government’s automotive straitjacket about ensuring every Canadian family can own a green vehicle, or about propping up a pampered car-making sector? The Liberals can’t have it both ways.Trudeau may have a flair for the dramatic, but he also knows where the votes are. If Western Canada’s agriculture industry, often run by hardworking families, has to be savaged for the glory of cushy unionized jobs in Ontario, so be it. It’s a small price to pay for a widely unpopular leader who will soon be shown the door by voters, or his own caucus.The son is just like the father. In 1980, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau imposed the National Energy Program. It meant that Alberta had to sell its oil at a discount to Central Canada, and forgo the higher price it would fetch on the global market.Did Albertans get a deal on products manufactured in the East, maybe on the price of a new car? Not a chance. The National Energy Program, credited with creating stifling unemployment and high interest rates, and causing many Albertans to lose their homes, was a gift to Central Canada at the expense of the West, fomenting, of course, Western Alienation.Biden and Trudeau can’t be certain their tariffs will be effective. A driver could purchase some Chinese-made EVs for about US$10,000 if they were available, so it’s still possible China could outsmart bloated North American manufacturers.China is also pursuing jointly owned plants in Mexico and Europe, so the cars might escape the tariffs and end up here anyway.Protectionism is seldom a virtue. It’s often an admission of desperation.The word canola is formed from Can, as in Canada, and ola, is in oil. And yet canola is produced in Australia and other nations, and the Aussies could end up eating Prairie farmers’ breakfast by having China choose their product over ours, thanks to the Liberals.It’s ironic. Henry Ford is credited with pioneering the mass-produced automobile. It was an innovation that replaced the horse and carriage and put car ownership in sight of many. Volkswagen — which again, made cars more affordable, means “People’s car” in German.Trudeau wants to keep EVs out of the hands of ordinary Canadians to curry the votes of Ontario unionists and plow over the livelihood of entrepreneurial Western farmers.David Marsden is a Calgary writer and editor.
