Please just give:
Cars with buttons and dials. No touch screens other than maybe a GPS exclusive screen.
Cars that can be fixed relatively easily.
Safety(Cars aren’t really safe, but its what we have to deal with so…make them smaller with clear lines of sight, etc).
These are my dreams, I guess. I doubt you can honestly get anything close to that in 2026. Also as if I would be able to afford anything new when cost of living has skyrocketed lol.
Cars that can handle the winter weather, traction control and ground clearance
Heated everything
US automakers broke their deals on running factories here. We have no native auto brands (other than attempted startups) building factories.
No need to protect US brand pricing anymore, let’s make cars affordable to Canadians
Can we also make housing affordable again?
And it’s only a limited quantity allowed in, like 10% of the market.
… let’s make cars affordable to Canadians
this is the first time in life that i envied canadians. lol
I agree with the sentiment, but there are a bunch of US car factories still running in Canada, despite Stellantis breaking their agreement.
The federal and Ontario governments will need to balance: keeping the jobs associated with existing factories, attracting Chinese factories, lowering costs for Canadian consumers, dealing with climate change, and placating Trump.
I don’t envy them.
Canadian auto-parts companies need to join together to make a Canadian car company. They built a demonstrator model, time to put that knowledge to work.
You could probably just buy Stellantis for a fiver. A lot of the Ontario factories are theirs anyway. You could even let Bombardier run it and there’s no way they can do worse than the way it’s currently being run.
the mexicans are doing it; the canadians should too.
Yup. That’s a difficult balancing act. Thing is, nobody wants North American cars except North Americans. The rest of the world is going to EVS while we spend billions (which Stellantis is still in debt for IIRC) propping up and industry that has retrenched back to huge gas guzzlers.
It is reminiscent of the 1970s energy crisis. We bailed out Chrysler (and Ford?) while they surrendered market to smaller, more efficient, European and Japanese imports.
From what I can tell, car manufacturers outside North America are quietly being gobbled up by Chinese companies. Some of those manufacturers are producing EVs, which are often paid for with government subsidies. Meanwhile, we’re rolling back those subsidies and failing to build our EV infrastructure.
… and failing to build our EV infrastructure
is it still a failure if it’s intentional?
Seriously? your government can’t or won’t acknowledge the challenges of transitioning to renewables oriented vehicles so you complain that foreign companies aren’t investing to create the infrastructure you need. This, while you double down on oil sands, gas guzzlers from mercan designers and indicate in every way possible that you’re not interested in EVs.
GET YOUR HAND OFF MY CAUCUS!
This actually made me laugh. Thank you, I needed it.
God forbid regular people can afford to buy a daily driver EV
No it is Canada’s duty to protect the sacred North American institutions of F150 and Ram /s
Copypasta:
We should be reducing our import of Chinese developed technology, “smart” devices, phones, and EVs in particular. Every Chinese business big enough to play at the global scale has the government in it’s power structure. They don’t necessarily dictate business decisions but every bit of data collected is by default accessible by the government.
Having a significant fraction of a country driving around in Chinese EVs gives an insane amount of information to the Chinese government for free. And it’s not just direct information either like the driver’s identity, with millions of cars on the road a lot can be inferred, like if the parking lots at military bases suddenly fill up on a Tuesday afternoon or traffic between a high value person’s home and an airport gets unusually slow.
Cars have cellular modems, they have wifi and bluetooth hardware, if a particular person’s device was identified, for example, at a political meeting then that person could be trivially tracked by the dozens of Chinese cars and “smart” devices that they pass in a day. The information could be smuggled home along with all the normal diagnostic, update and service info. It is not in our best interest to let the Chinese government track individuals, be it politicians, expats, or activists.
This could be done today by the our government, and it is to some extent, to identify, and locate, protesters and criminals by their mobile devices but it takes time and access to equipment and logs that the government does not always own. A competent adversary who owns millions of devices in your country can do in seconds what takes law enforcement weeks to accomplish via conventional means.
Remember that China was caught operating their own “police” force around the world not long ago, they will take advantage of any opportunity they are given to spy on other countries and gain political control.
China doesn’t plan for the next fiscal quarter they plan for the next quarter century, and Canada’s resources are in their sights.
Okay, but are American cars better from a security standpoint? I guess European cars are a valid option.
From an economic and domestic politics standpoint more trade with China is good, and maintaining what we have (like in canola and seafood) is imperative.
They were, yes, because the US was a trusted ally who shared a worldview, geopolitical interests and political ideal of democracy and other values. China never has. The US no longer does. Europe is the only other major car making economy that Canada shares values closely with but they aren’t making cheap EVs yet and may never.
More trade with China creates more opportunities for whatever their geopolitical goals are and empowers those efforts, including creating the kind of trade leverage the US has been using to force compliance. Canada must trade and the options are not ideal.
Hmm. Are European EVs more expensive than American ones? I thought they were similar.
The US could conceivably do the same as I suspect China is doing, but the US government has to approach each manufacture and request or just take the data. Then they have to correlate it and so on. There was a recent writeup where someone found they could make themselves an admin (oops forgot to finish a sentence) on a US manufactures dealer network and use it to locate any vehicle sold since ~2015.
China has full access to any data collected by any business without red tape, and they are able to compel manufactures to include any feature they want.
Sure we can trade in raw materials and simple manufacturing but we need to stick to importing technology that was not designed by a country that has and will continue to be hostile to Canada.
(I think you started a thought and then forgot about it, there)
Yes, it’s definitely harder for the NSA to do NSA stuff than it would be for… eh, the CAC, apparently (maybe?), but obviously it hasn’t stopped the Americans. What we really should be doing is our own counterintelligence work, where we sweep imports for funny business. And importantly, impose the basic expectation that our hardware and software isn’t spying on us in the first place, although that would be a huge shift.
Honestly I’d be less worried about my car spying on me than my phone but we import those from China almost exclusively.
Yes, that goes for phones as well. The Americans have definitely been on the lookout for hardware trojans on computing devices. Probably us too in some capacity, being in the five eyes.
I have a feeling we’ll have much easier time getting Chinese manufacturers to comply with disabling telemetry for our market without being hit with sanctions than US.
That’s true too. I actually use a Chinese brand of phone, because guess what, most of the Western brands are locked down.
Obviously there’s exceptions like FairPhone, and there’s rumors Chinese silicon gets messed with. We don’t need them to pinky swear to anything we can verify, though. We just need them to agree, and unlike somebody they’re pragmatic enough to do so.
That’s right.
I started using a Fairphone recently actually. It’s an EU brand, sure, but the device and software is designed and made by T2 Mobile of Shanghai. So it’s essentially the same deal - Fairphone says “we want no telemetry” and T2 Mobile says “okay” and disables it. Behind all the pretences most brands work like this. Whether it’s only hardware, or software and hardware, or some mix, it all ultimately hinges on the Chinese supplier being pragmatic and doing what they were asked to do.
From Fairphone themselves:
This is the source tree from our hardware and software supplier T2Mobile.
That is highly doubtful. The challenges would be different but I’m skeptical it would be any easier.
I’m saying that because It’s how most manufacturing of western electronics works. We tell the Chinese manufacturer what to enable and what not to enable. Then we check (or don’t) and we sell it domestically.
Yes, this is incredibly non-controversial. Which cars do you replace them with? American ones?
Fuck man. This is such a shit situation.
We need new cars NOW. But what we ought to be doing is expanding rail infrastructure and public transit.
K, but transit takes 4-10 years to build and will still never be able to cover cases like transporting the truly frail and sickly, large amounts of stuff, or going to remote and sparse places, because the last mile edge of the network is still a last mile at minimum, especially in inclement weather.
Cars are still going to exist for the long term forseeable future, we can try and minimize their use by providing better alternatives but we still need to plan for a future where they exist.
Yeah, I mean it’s as Carney said in his speech:
We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be
Material conditions intensify
The guy is in the big fucking chair. Right now he has the power to steer the future where we want it to be. But he ain’t going to do it because he can’t think outside the bank. We need someone with more vision and more guts.
Lmao your take is that the Prime Ministership of Canada, the free leader of all of 0.049% of the global population (almost a full half of 0.1 percent!), is the “big fucking chair” that can single handily steer global events in any way he chooses?
You’re also presuming that when he does steer them, that that steering will be out in the open and plainly obvious for everyone to see?
You misinterpreted my comment.
Of course he’s limited to Canada. He can change policies, decide to invest in greener alternatives, etc. But instead all he thinks about is counting some beans. So he’s investing in what brings profit at he detriment of everything else.
Lemmy seems to instinctively respond with “more transit” even when it doesn’t make sense. It’s hard to go too far with that one, but we’ve managed.
We can have more transit!
Eventually yes, and we should. Does it have anything to do with trade policy with China in 2026? Not particularly; it’s sort of interconnected the way everything is, but that’s all. (Or was that the joke?)
Well you said Lemmy says more transit too much, so … I had to oblige. 😄
Europe, Japan, Korea. They have their own problems too but it’s the USA and China that are actively threatening Canada.
It’s bizarre because the scales have really tipped.
3 years ago, China wanted to directly interfere with Canada for the purpose of stacking the government to be more “Pro-China”, and that’s an active threat for sure. The USA just wanted favorable trade conditions and general support on the world stage.
Fast forward to now, the USA is actively trying to destabilize and divide Canada. They want a weaker nation. Seed dissert. Makes the country easier to push around. China… still obviously wants Canada to be more “Pro-China”, but for Canada to be what they want… they still want a strong Canada. A strong Canada could be a vocal counterbalance. One in disarray can not.
So, while it’s true that both countries are actively threatening Canada, their idealized vision for a Canada that can be exploited are basically polar opposites. A strong Canada willing to break ranks w/ the USA, vs a fractured weakened country thar can’t afford to.
China does not want a strong Canada. A strong Canada might speak out about Taiwan and demand change before making trade deals. A strong Canada will look for more ethical but expensive trade partners in Europe.
The US wants Canada directly for resources, China wants a scared Canada who is willing to take any deal just to get some stability.
I agree with the ultimate goal (getting Canadian support, or at the very least Canadian silence).
I disagree about how it could possibly achieve those ends.
A weak Canada becomes little more than a US puppet. Full stop. Based on proximity, relative cultural similarities, and trade dependence, that’s the inevitable result. Nothing China could ever do could alter that outcome. A weakened Canada folds into the US in global matters. If that happens, China has lost before the game even begins.
It’s a strict prerequisite that Canada be able to absorb the reprocussions of breaking ranks with the USA if you want Canada to break ranks with the USA. A stable, economically diversified Canada CAN. Otherwise it CAN’T.
So “can they” is the first hurdle for China. The second is “will they”. That’s where this is all playing out. Over the last… I dunno, 4 years, they’ve been working on the “will they” by getting cozy with politicians.
Right now, they’re at significant risk of backsliding from a “will they” situation back to a “can they” situation.
The USA has a much shorter path. They don’t have to compete for “will they (side with USA)” if they can merely make it so that “can they (break ranks)” becomes unfeasible based on economic and political turmoil.
Insightful.
I’d add that our opinions, like mine, have been heavily influenced by pro-US and anti-China propaganda by American and pro-American actors for a long time. I only started noticing it over the last couple of years. Now it’s obvious as day. Not saying there’s nothing to worry about. Just musing on our collective opinion towards China.
See when trump says paid actors are protesting him, i think he’s funding this kind of shit.
Did you never care until Trump that you were buying so many US cars? What threat is China to Canada?
Remember that whole thing where they interfered with elections and were policing expats from China? That never stopped.
Policing expats, sure. But what about this election interference?
Well, I hope next time they will make the “socialist” NDP win then.
They are one of the most powerful world players and xenophobes, they are an existential threat to everyone.
Why pick characteristics indistinguishable between China and the US lol
American isn’t xenophobic, well, current American leadership might be.
The US? Absolutely. China? Lol.
Bicycle
I do around town but a 30km commute to a 12hr shift is not really viable.
Aint no way am I willing or even able to bike 50km to work each way in the winter.
Reminder that ~100% of Canadian territory is not urban.
Don’t like 70% of Canadians live in urban environments though? Meaning a lot of people could probably get by with a bicycle and public transit. Not everyone of course, but the “~100% of territory is not urban” line is kinda misleading when ~100% of territory is also devoid of human activity in the first place.
Sure. But 70% bikes is still 30% cars (or busses, or offroad whatever).
Farmland has to be at least 10%, and then outside the high arctic there’s trapping and native hunting, if only when someone passes through. There’s human activity. It’s not just crudely rendered videogame scenery as soon as you leave whatever city.
This just in, Toronto doesn’t exist
If you haven’t seen it before, that little squiggle means “approximately”.
