Why Canada should ignore Doug Ford’s shenanigans, and move to Drop the egregious 100% Tariff on Chinese EV, which’s designed to protect U.S. Hegemony ASAP… for geopolitics, economic, and strategic reasoning

The Star’s Opinion by Wenran Jiang, the founding director of the China Institute and MacTaggart Research Chair Emeritus at the University of Alberta, is president of Canada-China Energy and Environment Forum and an adviser at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy refers,

Why Canada should drop its 100 per cent tariff on Chinese EV sales, despite Doug Ford’s protests

By Eddie Hardie, Sociopolitical Commentator @ Canuck🍁Post

Excellent article. As someone looking to buy an EV, the lack of affordable options is frustrating…

The 100% tariff is a short-sighted policy that ultimately hurts Canadian consumers and our own green transition. As the author rightly points out, protecting an industry that hasn’t yet scaled up only shields it from the innovation and competition it needs to eventually succeed on the global stage. We should be accelerating EV adoption and affordability, not limiting it with protectionist walls. Let’s compete, not retreat.

While I understand the desire to protect domestic manufacturing, not only the 100% tariff is a massive tax on Canadian consumers, it denies us access to more affordable and technologically advanced vehicles, slowing down the very EV adoption we’re trying to encourage with subsidies. If we’re serious about a green future, we need to make EVs accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford premium prices. Competition will force all automakers, including those in Ontario, to up their game.

A blanket tariff is an economic and environmental dead end. The global EV market is evolving rapidly, and Canada risks being left behind. Instead of building a fortress, we should be building bridges — attracting Chinese battery technology and manufacturing investment to our shores, as we’ve started to do. Let’s leverage our resources and skilled workforce to become a hub for the EV supply chain, not a protected backwater. Ford’s protests ignore the bigger geopolitical and economic picture.

The article makes several compelling arguments that are hard to ignore:

1. Consumer Choice & Affordability: Blocking a major segment of the market artificially inflates prices and limits options for Canadians.

2. Stifling Innovation: True competitiveness is forged in the market, not in a protected bubble. Our domestic producers need this catalyst to excel.

3. Global Leadership: How can we claim to be climate leaders while using tariffs to make the key technology of the transition more expensive?

4. Strategic Misstep: This move alienates a key player in the critical minerals and battery supply chain we are trying to build.

Doug Ford’s position is understandable from a narrow, short-term political perspective, but it’s a poor long-term strategy for Canada. We should drop the tariff and focus on winning through innovation, not protectionism.

Folks, please ignore this corrupt imbecile called Doug Ford who’s nothing but a scandalous laughingstock whereby his corruption scandals (even murderous crime) are so plentiful, it makes Donald Trump looks like a saint.