The following letter is in reaction to the Sept. 18 editorial piece in the Manitoba Co-operator, “Canola or cars? Canada can’t save both.”
Doug Firby’s article is bang on.
What he doesn’t mention is the fact that it’s not an economic decision, but a political decision.
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There are more voters in the Ontario auto industry than Western Canada. The recent comments by our public safety minister on the decision to proceed with the gun buy-back program speaks volumes to how and why certain decisions are made in Ottawa.
One underlying factor in all this is the fact that farmers and farms can’t move. While individual farmers may decide to stop farming, someone will farm that land and generate economic activity. The auto industry, with its jobs, can move. It wouldn’t be easy, but over time it can migrate, just like it did to the detriment of Detroit.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has urged the federal government to maintain the tariffs on Chinese made electrical vehicles, again, on the basis of jobs. Perhaps Doug Ford wants to send a couple of billion dollars to Western Canada to boost the canola industry.
