Doug Ford wants Canadians to boycott Chinese-made EVs
The premier said that we should “support companies that are building vehicles here”
Premier Doug Ford has made it clear that he doesn’t support Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new EV deal with China. When the agreement was first announced, Ford called it “a mess.” Shortly after that, during an address to the Rural Ontario Municipal Association last Monday, Ford reiterated his frustration about the deal.
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“I’m extremely disappointed by this decision, which will directly impact our auto workers and the supply chains that support them, including many rural areas,” he said, noting that he found out about the deal mere hours before it was announced to the public.
“The prime minister knows my number,” Ford said earlier this week in a separate comment. “I thought we had a good enough relationship that he would give me a quick text or a little bit of communication. That never happened.”
Now, Ford has taken the step of encouraging a boycott of Chinese-made vehicles. “Boycott the Chinese EV vehicles. Support companies that are building vehicles here,” Ford said at a news conference today. “This is a Team Canada approach. We gotta stick together.”
Carney’s trade agreement with China will see Beijing reduce tariffs on certain Canadian canola, seafood and vegetable products. In exchange, Canada will annually allow up to 49,000 Chinese EVs into the market at a 6.1 per cent tariff—a significant decrease from the previous 100 per cent tariff.
Ford previously called Chinese-made electric vehicles “spy cars” and claimed they could be used to surveil Canadians, referring to Canada’s 2022 ban on Huawei equipment.
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
