Canada does not have the technical knowledge to build EVs.

It’s true that we have expertise in machining. We do have cheaper metal sources, and lithium and rare earth resources that could be used to leverage Chinese automation for batteries, motors, gigapresses, and then use Canadian assembly workers to finish the cars.

The future is about engineering and design, and Canadian sustainability means avoiding anchoring ourselves to dead ender energy and processes.

Ford was saying yesterday “We need to protect the $46B government has invested in EV transition”. First, that is an absurd subsidy level, but to your point, it was always meant as a grift, because “real Canadians” don’t know how to make EVs.

With Chinese (or any other if they are volunteering) investment, in long term, it is technology transfer to Canadians. We’re too stupid to do anything disruptive/progressive is the path to staying stupid and falling behind.

“No one has firm plans to make EVs in Canada” - Not true, Canada had and still has Lion Electric for example. All Canadian schools should get their buses there. It’s a great place for adoption to start. They also had/have trucks. Lack of support from Canada is shameful.

I am not here to debate you or anyone else. If you wish to choose to use something for your convenience that damages the environment, costs more than its worth, and pretend like you are safe behind the wheel that is absolutely your choice.

Just know you are being judged because you are a huge part of the problem, and seemingly joyfully so.

Take care.

someone on a bike was struck by a car and killed just a few blocks away from me this very morning

It’s is bike’s fault. Not culture’s fault.

And even then a lot of cities aren’t set up to make bike travel easy.

Years ago, in the before times, the office I worked at was within biking distance of my house and I routinely biked there. It was nice. Then they moved the office downtown and it was either a half-hour commute by car, an hour long commute by bus, and I-don’t-know-how-long-by-bike-because-fuck-that-epic-journey commute by bike. I bussed a lot, but that meant I was wasting an hour of my time each day. I wasn’t fond of that. I hadn’t entirely settled on which approach was better overall before Covid hit and I never went back to that office again by either route.

There happens to be a grocery store within biking distance of my house. I drive a car there anyway, because even living solo I still like to get several weeks worth of groceries when I go shopping. No way am I hauling cargo like that on a bike even if I had a trailer for it.

I am not here to debate you or anyone else.

<Proceeds to make a comment full of criticisms of positions you disagree with and insulting those who hold them>

Yeah, good job at not-debating.

There was a big bet/hope on Honda battery facility. AFAIK, its on hold for perpetuity until Trump doesn’t scare Honda anymore, which won’t happen, because any future president/US politician will like that Honda is a sycophant to it. Lion counts a little bit, busses actually very important emissions sources, but it’s relatively small part of Canadian transportation.

School buses carry 100% of future car buyers and those who experiment EVs don’t go back to ICE.

Our country, climate, society and city design isn’t made for lots of biking

I do agree we need more bicycle infrastructure but commuting and shopping by bike are very doable for many different kinds of people. I know this because I do it and I see others do it every day.

Most car trips are under 5 km. That is a distance that could be easily covered by bike in about 15 to 20 minutes. I think a lot of people could replace a lot of car trips with bike trips without much issue at all.

Kind of a tangent, but everytime I read “need a more nuanced…” In regards to regulation, from an industry person or a politician, I can’t help but assume they are just trying to create some kind of loophole to massively exploit something they weren’t already allowed to

Nobody is making choices for you. You make your own choices to drive, I am just saying that you can make another choice that would be better for the environment, better for your health, and far cheaper than buying an EV.

is your personal time and effort worthless? How much is an extra hour of your time spent pedalling a bike worth to you?

I find the time and effort spent riding a bike to get places pretty enjoyable and I think a lot of other people too do. Plus it means less time needed at the gym. I dont know where you live, but most people live within 5 km of grocery stores, shops, etc. Which is maybe a 15 to 20 minute bike ride, not an hour. I somehow doubt an extra ten or fifteen minutes to go somewhere is going to ruin your day.

Im confused by your animosity when I mostly agree with you, but nothing I’ve said is wrong. Different people are comfortable with different levels of risk when biking but that does not mean it can’t be done. Cold weather biking is very doable in cities with warm clothing and if needed, studded tires. People go outside in cold weather to walk and for recreation all the time, biking is not some bizarre activity that is impossible to do in the cold. I’ve biked in places with cold snowy winters and places with mild slushy winters, if theres been a lot of snow that hasn’t been cleared yet, I usually opt for transit on those days. If I am not comfortable riding a bike in those conditions though, I certainly wont be comfortable driving.

car-dependency makes biking distances prohibitively expensive in the one way that you clearly have never had to think about: time

This is an argument that I find surprising. Maybe Im not as good at scheduling as other people but if a 5 minute car ride turns into a 15 or 20 minute bike ride, is that really that much extra time? Is your whole day going to be ruined? Or a 15 minute car commute turns into a 30 or 40 minute bike commute, is that extra time really not worth the cost savings? Not to mention the time you dont have to spend at the gym now. There are loads of people that choose to live somewhere where they have to spend over an hour commuting to and from work by car. Personally I think an hour long commute by bike would be much more pleasant.

I see a lot of lame excuses as to why people cant ride their bikes. But most of these are solvable problems. Safe infrastructure is, in my opinion, the only factor that needs to be addressed to get people on bikes. Unfortunately we have administrations that are actively adversarial against this sort of change. Rather than tell people that it is hopeless to try to ride a bike in our society, I am telling people that it is very much possible to make the choice to ride a bike if you are dtermined enough. If people are saying that they cant bike places because its too cold or too rainy or too far, I am going to give them solutions, I am not going to just say that our infrastructure is too awful to support that choice in the first place. The best way to get people advocating for safe cycling infrastructure is to get more people on bikes. Im sorry that you’ve given up on change.

If I were to debate you it would go something like this:

Internal combustion engines are the largest contributors to man made climate change, and ceasing there use entirely would immediately drop the output of pollution to more sustainable and manageable levels.

Evidence of this was seen during COVID lock down.

“During the current COVID-19 pandemic (CP), human activities, which are considered as major sources of various pollutants, were stopped partially to completely almost globally, resulting in reduced pollution levels (Zambrano-Monserrate et al. 2020; Muhammad et al. 2020; Saadat et al. 2020; Gautam 2020b). Community mobility reports (https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility/) depict that human mobility decreased by 90% between 23 February 2020 to 05 April 2020, specifically in European countries (Muhammad et al. 2020). During the same time, a sharp decline in air pollution was noticed worldwide. Climatologists predicted that greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (NO) emissions declined to levels not observed since World War II (Global Carbon Project 2020; Zambrano-Monserrate et al. 2020). Some recent studies have shown that atmospheric emission of multiple pollutants such as NO2, CO2, CO, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 significantly decreased (ESA 2020; Saadat et al. 2020; Dantas et al. 2020; Mahato et al. 2020; Quéré et al. 2020; Ju et al. 2021; Mostafa et al. 2021). Scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) revealed the reduction in NO2 pollution near Wuhan and the trend continued across China (NASA 2020; Dutheil et al. 2020).”

Individuals can make this happen again by simply taking extra time and effort to not use internal combustion engines. If every person with a non commercial vehicle gave it up where possible (Like living in major cities) we could see a turning point in Climate change.

Unfortunately due to a feeling of privilege, intense propaganda, and in many cases sheer laziness people generally do not want to put in any effort to make a difference regarding their personal carbon footprint.

Giving up the internal combustion engine would also allow for a complete redesign of urban environments. Another big factor in the warming planet: Concrete and Asphalt. Removing roads in cities, parking lots, and replacing them with walking paths and more trees, would immediately help cool the planet as there is less heat stored on the surface.

Another wonderful option is storing that heat as energy for use later, like Iceland does with their roads.

In conclusion, the use of personal vehicles and the required infrastructure is incredibly damaging to the environment and removing both variables would see an immediate net positive in regards to climate change. Those who choose not to do their part are a major problem, and saying that is not “insulting those who hold” such an irresponsible, unscientific, and damaging opinion.

Enjoy your toys while you have them.

Take care.

Nobody is making choices for you.

The story is literally about tariffs on cars.

I am just saying that you can make another choice

Of course I can. I could choose to walk everywhere barefoot. I’m not going to, though, for the reasons I’ve explained.

Plus it means less time needed at the gym.

I don’t spend time in a gym anyway. I am fit enough and I have better uses of my time and money. Most people don’t go to a gym.

I dont know where you live, but most people live within 5 km of grocery stores, shops, etc. Which is maybe a 15 to 20 minute bike ride, not an hour.

In other comments in this thread I’ve mentioned there’s a grocery store very close to where I live, it’s about 5 minutes to bike there. But I don’t, because even when the weather is nice I still need to haul groceries.

I am not here to debate you or anyone else.

<Proceeds to write seven paragraphs of debate>

In other comments in this thread I’ve mentioned there’s a grocery store very close to where I live, it’s about 5 minutes to bike there. But I don’t, because even when the weather is nice I still need to haul groceries.

So its not a time issue for you? You just dont want to carry groceries on your bike?

Why does Canada tariff them? Do they have domestic production they are protecting?

I physically can’t carry the groceries on my bike. You’re making a lot of assumptions about people here.

Investment in Canada ? How soon we forget the lesson NorTel taught us.

What’s hilarious about this is that the road outside my place is in fact under construction right now and is not easily accessible by foot, it’s an extra ten minute walk to the next bus-stop and busses have been behind by half an hour to an hour as a result of the poor timing. Not everyone can live in the wealthy metropolises my guy, sorry that this shatters your morality.

“You can find extra three hours in a day to use transit, bike, or walk.” Nobody said anything about walking OR transit you privileged douchebag, this was about bicycles in car-dependent cities. So telling that you read this as “evil capitalist” as though it isn’t exactly fucking that system that has caused this. No, people do not in fact have three hours in a day that they just choose to not use. Some people work sixty hour weeks with children. “Screen time” as a cause for “wasted” time is fucking hilarious and a reminder of avacado toast as the root cause of wage stagnation.

Such inane liberal nonsense, you don’t want a better world you just want to feel better.