Thanks to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his longtime sidekick Chrystia Freeland, I’ve become disillusioned with Canada, my former home and native land. Under the leadership of Trudeau and Freeland, Jew hatred has run amok, with Montreal and Toronto undisputably among the biggest hotbeds of antisemitism in the western world. The Toronto area where I grew up in some circles is now publicly referred to as a “Zionist infested neighborhood.”
The synagogue my parents were among the founders was vandalized, and anti-Israel protesters routinely parade in Jewish communities with Hamas flags and other symbols of terrorist organizations. Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism found a 670 percent increase in antisemitic incidents in Canada since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
Canadians should be outraged by President Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs and his lumping Canada with Mexico on matters relating to automotive trade. I’ve read there was some booing when the U.S. national anthem was sung at a Canadian hockey game, but the rage of Canadians should be more palpable. Therein are the consequences of electing a prime minister who proudly boasted to the New York Times there’s no such thing as a Canadian identity.
Little wonder that 43% percent of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 34 said they’d vote to become the 51st state if citizens and conversion of assets to U.S. dollars were guaranteed. I’d call that an identity crisis, one I blame on Trudeau and Freeland, the latter who will be long gone from Canada when she retires from politics to pursue her globalist ideals and ambitions in the U.S. or Switzerland, where she is a darling of the Davos crowd.
Silence is difficult
Despite my despair about the harm Trudeau and Freeland have caused Canada, it’s difficult remaining silent about the unfairness of Trump lumping Canada with Mexico on matters relating to automotive trade. The trade circumstances of Canada and Mexico are decidedly different when it comes to automotive manufacturing, and Canada is arguably getting unfairly screwed by Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs. That said, Canada could cause some real pain for the U.S., particularly for GM CEO Mary Barra’s electric vehicle aspirations.
In 2024, GM was Canada’s industry market share leader for the second year in a row, capturing 15.4 percent of the market—its highest share since 2010—with 294,315 vehicles sold and an 11.9 percent sales increase. Cadillac and GMC each had their best sales year ever.
GM’s Canadian sales represented nearly 10% of the company’s combined U.S. and Canadian sales. Notably, GM’s best-selling vehicles in Mexico are built in China.
Ford ranked second in Canada, selling 279,221 new vehicles nationwide in 2024, a 16.1 percent increase over the year ago period.
Higher EV adoption
Electric vehicle adoption is higher in Canada than the U.S. While Trump isn’t a fan of EVs, his predecessor was, and like State Farm Canada was a good neighbor and embraced Joe Biden’s green energy policies. Trump would be wise to be mindful that if Canada were to become the 51st state, the U.S. would immediately have some 40 million citizens more aligned with the values and mindsets of Californians than Texans.
Boosted by the launch of new models, primarily the Chevrolet Equinox EV, GM sold 31,967 electric vehicles in Canada last year, up 109 percent from 2023. Canada represented more than 21% of GM’s combined U.S. and Canadian EV sales, despite Canada having a population of only 40 million, compared to America’s 335 million.
The Canadian government only offers a C$5,000 tax credit on EVs, compared with C$7,500 allowed for most GM-made EVs in the U.S., although residents in Quebec and British Columbia can claim an additional C$4,000 credit.
GM’s EV sales in Canada significantly outpaced the automaker’s electric vehicle sales in California, far and away the biggest market in the U.S. for battery powered vehicles.
According to California New Car Dealers Association, only three GM EVs – Cadillac Lyriq, Chevy Equinox and Chevy Bolt – made the top 25 list of new vehicle 2024 EV registrations, respectively ranking 17, 22, and 25 with paltry sales of 5,235, 4,448, and 4,032.
Barra’s Mexican-made EVs
Canadians with a modicum of patriotism would be wise to shun the electric Equinox, as well as GM’s EV Blazer and the electric Cadillac Optiq.
That’s because those vehicles are manufactured in Mexico, and in the case of the Equinox and Blazer electric vehicles, GM opted to swap out U.S. and Canadian parts in the 2025 models in favor of Mexican-made parts. The 2025 electric Equinox and Blazer models have only 12% parts that were manufactured in the U.S. and Canada, compared with 62% percent of the 2024 models.
The U.S. and Canadian automotive industries became so seamlessly intertwined that the American Automotive Labeling Act of 1994 allowed automakers to label both U.S. and Canadian-manufactured parts as being made in the U.S. Mexican-made auto parts are increasingly made by Chinese-owned companies.
Canada significantly contributed to GM’s 2008 bankruptcy bailout, losing an estimated C$800 million on the rescue. In return, GM closed a plant in Oshawa outside of Toronto in 2019, costing some 5,000 plant and supplier workers their jobs. GM reopened a scaled-down version of the Oshawa plant in 2020 to build its highly profitable Silverado pickup trucks but most of the workers were newly hired and paid considerably less than GM was paying the plant’s previous workers and given decidedly less job security.
The Canadian and Ontario governments announced in 2022 they would commit a total of C$518 million CDN to cover some 25% of GM’s costs to retool its Oshawa plant and one near London, Ontario, to build BrightDrop electric delivery vans. Blaming a shortage of batteries, GM closed the BrightDrop plant for about six months, idling about 1,500 workers.
Ford’s broken EV promises
Ford also screwed Canadians on its EV commitments.
In April 2023, Ford announced with great fanfare that it would spend C$1.8 billion to transform an Oakville (Ont.) Assembly Complex outside Toronto “into a Canadian hub of electric vehicle manufacturing” that would include vehicle and battery pack assembly key to Ford’s plan to reach a global production run rate of 2 million EVs annually by the end of 2026.
The Canadian and Ontario governments committed to investing C$295 million each to help Ford upgrade its Oakville assembly plant to make EVs.
Ford reneged on its promise before Trump was re-elected. In July of last year Ford said it would refocus its Oakville plant to produce gasoline-powered versions of its flagship F-Series Super Duty pickup trucks by 2026.
Pain for Tesla
Tesla is the EV market leader in Canada, and Freeland, who is running to replace Trudeau as Canada’s Liberal party leader, has called for a 100% tariff on Teslas in a “surgical” reprisal to Trump’s tariffs. Toronto mayor Olivia Chow said this week she’ll move to ban Tesla from the list of vehicles eligible for a licensing fee grant, which encourages ride-sharing drivers to buy electric vehicles. The ban would make taxi drivers who own Tesla vehicles ineligible for the grant.
Given the historic closeness of the U.S. and Canada, which share the world’s largest undefended border, its tragic seeing Trump treating America’s northern neighbor so shabbily. Many Americans, and no doubt Canadians as well, have forgotten, or never knew, about former Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor harboring six Americans at great personal risk after the 1979 raid on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and subsequently helping them escape the country and return to the U.S.
Dare I say this, but I’m doubtful the Canadian government under Trudeau or Freeland would authorize such a rescue. Indeed, I wouldn’t put it past Trudeau or Freeland to rat out the American workers to the Iranians, in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel.
Trump is a bully and he pounces when he smells weakness. Trudeau is a not-too-smart boy doing a man’s job, and Canadians are paying a price for his years of ineptitude. A more competent prime minister could easily convince Trump that his proposed Canadian tariffs are misguided and unfair.