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Tuesday February 25, 2025

February 25, 2025 by Graeme MacKay
Doug Ford's focus on the electric vehicle sector faces risks from U.S. policy shifts and market uncertainties, sparking debate over economic diversification and the sustainability of his strategy.Doug Ford's Electric Vehicle Gamble: A Fortunate Oversight in Election Season

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 25, 2025

Doug Ford’s Electric Vehicle Gamble: A Fortunate Oversight in Election Season

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s ambitious electric vehicle investments face a collision course with Donald Trump’s return to power, raising tensions that could define Canada-U.S. relations.

November 22, 2024

As Ontario approaches its election on February 27, 2025, Premier Doug Ford faces a challenging situation with his ambitious plans for the electric vehicle (EV) industry. While he’s committed to boosting this growing sector, threats from U.S. President Donald Trump and uncertainties in the car market present serious challenges that shouldn’t be ignored.

News: As Trump threatens, should Ontario keep its ‘eggs in the EV basket?’

Ontario has a long history in the traditional car industry, and the shift to electric vehicles marks an important change. Ford’s strategy, however, depends heavily on stable U.S. policies and decisions. Trump’s recent cuts to EV incentives and threats to tax Canadian imports highlight the risks. Since a lot of Ontario’s car production goes to the U.S., a drop in EV demand there could be disastrous. The province has invested billions, which could be wasted if the market doesn’t grow as expected.

Political opponents like NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie have questioned Ford’s plans. Crombie’s comment about “putting all our eggs in the EV basket” shows concerns about relying too much on one industry. Surprisingly, this issue hasn’t been a major topic in the election, possibly because voters are focused on immediate issues like healthcare and education.

News: Ford says he’ll honour Ontario’s EV commitment, Crombie and Stiles less definitive

June 3, 2023

It’s lucky for Ford that the risks of his EV plan haven’t become a major election issue. However, this could be risky. While it helps him push his EV agenda, it also leaves a major weakness unaddressed, which might be used against him as the election nears.

The impact of focusing on the EV industry is significant. The car sector supports about 100,000 jobs and adds nearly $15 billion to Ontario’s economy. A downturn, especially if influenced by U.S. policy changes, could lead to job losses and economic problems. Ford needs to see that while he’s promoting an innovative idea, he’s also risking the province’s economic future.

News: Stellantis pauses work on Jeep Compass, leaving future of Brampton plant up in the air

May 17, 2023

In summary, Doug Ford’s dedication to the electric vehicle sector is admirable but uncertain. As he campaigns, he should be thankful that these concerns haven’t turned into major opposition. However, he shouldn’t ignore this. Ford must tackle the weaknesses in his EV strategy, diversify Ontario’s economy, and prepare for possible issues from unpredictable U.S. politics. Ontario’s economic future might depend on it.


As we approach this Thursday’s provincial election, there’s something that’s been quite under the radar. Doug Ford’s big investments in EV battery deals, which cost billions, aren’t really being talked about. The opposition isn’t bringing it up, and Ford’s not making a big deal out of it either.

Why the quiet? Well, Donald Trump’s focus on fossil fuels has kind of overshadowed green energy efforts. Now, any push to help the planet and invest in renewables is brushed off as “woke” stuff. What’s interesting, though, is that the federal Liberals and Ford’s government have actually teamed up to invest in Ontario’s green sector—something you don’t see often.

It was a move everyone agreed on when the U.S. was more supportive. But now, with those days gone, there’s this odd silence on an issue that might become a big challenge for Ford in the future. Even as he looks set for a big win this week, I wonder how this will all play out.

Check out my making-of animated editorial cartoon for February 24, 2025, below! If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to my Substack newsletter, where I share weekly editorial cartoons every Saturday morning. Substack is a crucial platform for me amidst the uncertainties of being a staff cartoonist, especially given recent layoffs and newspaper closures affecting our field. As long as I hold my position, subscriptions will remain free. Thank you for your support! This “note” helps craft my weekly posts and showcases animated versions of my cartoons. Enjoy!

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Posted in: Ontario Tagged: 2025-04, blackjack, casino, diversification, Donald Trump, Doug Ford, election, EV, Gambling, investment, Ontario, OntElection2025, policy, risks, tariffs, vehicles

Friday October 16, 2020

October 24, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 16, 2020

Make Canada’s electric vehicle bet pay off

The federal and Ontario governments have just rolled the dice — using taxpayers’ money — in hopes of hitting it big in the electric vehicle industry.

November 22, 2019

After anteing up $295 million apiece, they recently convinced Ford Motor Co. of Canada to commit about $1.4 billion of its own money to start manufacturing these zero-emission machines and the batteries that power them at its Oakville plant by 2025. 

It’s a smart, and admirably non-partisan, gamble on the part of these governments that could preserve thousands of Canadian auto-sector jobs and grow the economy while doing something just as important — fighting climate change.

But if they want this steep, $590-million bet to pay off, they have to do more than just put up money. It’s not as easy as saying if you build it they’ll buy it. 

While there are plenty of hybrid and fully electric vehicles on the market, only about 0.5 per cent of the 23 million passenger vehicles on Canadian roads are electric. There are strong reasons more Canadians haven’t leapt behind the wheel of an EV, reasons Ottawa and Queen’s Park need to address.

October 3, 2020

For starters, electric vehicles are generally more expensive to buy than the ones driven by the internal combustion engines that are doing so much to heat up this planet. When it comes to range, most EVs can’t travel nearly as far on a full-charge as their gasoline-driven rivals on a full tank, though the gap is decreasing. And the number of electric recharging stations is pitifully small — just a fraction of the number of gas stations out there.

These negatives shouldn’t make anyone a naysayer about the future of Canada’s electric car and battery industry. It is, in fact, visionary for our nation to embrace what will surely be the technology of the future. Unfortunately there are no givens in the global auto sector and too often good intentions on the parts of governments and even industrial gurus don’t pan out. 

February 27, 2020

Canada badly lags behind other countries, such the United States, Germany, Japan and especially China in making EVs. When the current federal Liberal government asked every single EV manufacturer in the world to move to Canada, the answer was consistently no.

But there’s an upside to the fact that Ford Motor’s first zero-emission vehicles won’t roll of the line in Oakville for another five years. That gives the federal and Ontario governments a half decade to ensure their — your — investment ultimately pays off.

Canada needs recharge stations, lots of them. Establishing and paying for more of this essential infrastructure should be part of the federal Liberals’ plan for rebuilding post-pandemic Canada. 

Perhaps they could partner with existing gas stations. If their owners give the matter some thought they’ll realize they, too, have a stake in transitioning away from petroleum-based fuels.

Programs could be established or beefed up across the country to help homeowners as well as condo and apartment complexes, to install their own recharging facilities. In addition, the federal government should review its current rebate program for people buying electric vehicles to determine if it’s working and even if it should be enhanced.

Finally, attention must also be paid to the Canadian mining companies that produce the minerals, such as cobalt, nickel and lithium, that will go into the electric vehicle batteries. Do they require help in meeting what could be a significant new demand?

When it comes to electric vehicles, Ottawa and Queen’s Park may feel that, as Ford Motor once proclaimed, they have “a better idea.” They need to back it up. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Posted in: Ontario Tagged: 2020-34, automobiles, climate change, cuts, Doug Ford, electric, environment, EV, Ford, Green Energy, Ontario, solar, vehicles, wind power

Friday October 11, 2019

October 18, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 11, 2019

Liberal climate plan offers the most hope

The critics who claim this federal election is devoid of big issues have got it wrong.

The challenge of fighting climate change stands out like a mountain that rises above a noisy, crowded plain.

On Election Day, the opportunity is here for this country to move up that mountain as never before, just when the calls for action around the world have reached a crescendo and as scientists warn time’s running out to avert an eventual catastrophe.

Fully aware of this, the main four national parties are all offering an action plan. But while each has its merits, after weighing the pros and cons of each party’s proposals, this newspaper believes the Liberals’ strategy is the most substantial, balanced and workable.

April 11, 2018

Despite what some well-meaning ideologues insist, Canada cannot meet its carbon emission targets — far less the utopian dream of no net emissions — overnight or in a few years. Not unless it wants to shut down its fossil-fuel-dependent economy, which no government would ever do.

The Liberals realize this and are trying to marry environmental necessity and economic reality. The policies they’ve enacted over the past four years are on track to taking Canada more than halfway toward meeting its Paris Agreement commitment. That would see this country reduce its carbon emissions in 2030 by a full third from what they were in 2005.

So far, the Liberals have imposed a carbon tax on provinces, such as Ontario, which have not put a price on carbon emissions. Implemented in April at $20 a tonne — about 4.3 cents a litre of gas at the pump — the tax will rise to $50 a tonne by 2022 and possibly more after that. If re-elected, the Liberals would also regulate the carbon content in fuels.

May 14, 2019

In sharp contrast, the Conservatives would axe the carbon tax, ignoring the fact that because most Canadians receive more in a carbon-tax rebate than they pay out, their pockets are not being picked even as they’re being encouraged to change their energy-consumption habits. The Conservatives’ approach also flies in the face of what most economists have long agreed: pricing carbon works from every perspective.

The Conservative plan to invest more in green technology and force large companies to spend more on such solutions if they fail to meet new emission standards would take Canada into unknown territory. It’s impossible to say how much emissions would fall under these initiatives or if they’d fall at all.

September 18, 2019

For their part, the New Democrats would keep the carbon tax while cancelling the rebates to millionaires. The party would also aim for a more ambitious emissions reduction — 38 per cent below 2005 levels — by 2030. Persuasive details for how this would happen, unfortunately, seem lacking.

As for the Green party’s commitment to even higher carbon taxes, more aggressive reductions in emissions and an end to the expansion of all pipelines including the Trans Mountain project, it ignores the serious economic fallout it would surely create.

The Liberals’ plan is far from perfect and, indeed, is still a work in progress. But while they’ve been criticized for buying the Trans Mountain pipeline and trying to expand it, the Liberals realize the race to stop climate change will be more like an ultra marathon than a 100-metre dash.

Canada needs to be in this for the long haul. And it must be economically healthy enough to keep running. Better than their rivals, the Liberals realize these truths and, on this issue at least, have the best plan. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: #elxn2019, 2019-36, Canada, climate change, dart board, electric, emissions, energy, environment, Green, Justin Trudeau, Target, vehicles

Wednesday September 4, 2019

September 11, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

September 4, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 4, 2019

Trump defends weekend of golf while Hurricane Dorian approached and Poland remembered Nazi invasion

President Trump lashed out at Sadiq Khan Tuesday after London’s mayor criticized him for golfing over the weekend as Hurricane Dorian edged closer to the coast of Florida.

April 13, 2018

“The incompetent Mayor of London, Sadique Kahn [sic], was bothered that I played a very fast round of golf yesterday,” said Trump in a tweet that, before being corrected, misspelled Khan’s first and last names. “Many Pols exercise for hours, or travel for weeks. Me, I run through one of my courses (very inexpensive). President Obama would fly to Hawaii.”

Khan, who attended a ceremony in Poland over the weekend commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland that began World War II, chided the president for skipping the event in favor of golfing at his private club in Virginia.

“He’s clearly busy dealing with a hurricane out on the golf course,” Khan told Politico on Monday, adding that Trump “is a guy who amplifies racist tweets; amplifies the tweets of fascists; says things that are deeply objectionable. If I don’t stand up and call that out I think I’m doing a disservice to Londoners who chose me as their mayor.”

Over the holiday weekend, the president played multiple rounds of golf at one of his properties in Virginia, where White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said he received “hourly updates.”

July 18, 2016

Trump’s golf trips have cost taxpayers over $100 million through the first two and a half years of his term, as he’s spent 227 days at one of his golf clubs as president. Former President Barack Obama did usually spend his Christmas vacations in his home state of Hawaii but did not fly there just to golf.

In August, the president canceled a visit to Denmark because the country’s prime minister was not open to the idea of selling Greenland to the United States. His cancellation of the trip to Poland drew little initial criticism until it was learned that he spent the weekend golfing.

“To ensure that all resources of the federal government are focused on the arriving storm, I have decided to send our vice president, Mike Pence, to Poland this weekend in my place,” Trump said last week. “It’s something very important for me to be here. The storm looks like it could be a very, very big one indeed.”

On Sunday, Trump was asked if he had any message for Poland on the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion.

“I just want to congratulate Poland,” Trump replied, adding, “It’s a great country with great people.” (Yahoo News) 

 

Posted in: USA Tagged: 2019-31, disaster, Donald Trump, emergency, golf, golf cart, Hurricane, relief, rescue, response, USA, vehicles

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This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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