by Harvey Oberfeld
Millions of Canadians have stood up for months now … elbows up … to Buy Canadian!
In many cases … purchasing fruits, vegetables, canned/packaged goods, clothing, shoes, appliances … we’ve paid more than if we had chosen similar products made in other countries.
And it hasn’t been just wealthy Canadians earning the big bucks: working middle class Canadians and even seniors on limited incomes have sacrificed and “Bought Canadian” because we care about our fellow citizens who are suffering from tariffs.
Donald Trump’s Trade War against Canada has hurt not only major producers and manufacturers who export to the United States, but their suppliers here as well, the places their workers shop, the mom and pop cafes, restaurants, bowling alleys, service industries etc. where they all spend their paycheques.
“The Conference Board of Canada warned in its latest five-year outlook that the country could lose approximately 160,000 jobs in the second quarter of 2025 as the trade war with the U.S. rages on,” warned the labour rights law firm Samfiru Tumarkin.
And among the hardest hit … Canadian steel and aluminum producers.
“At a 50 per cent tariff, we basically consider the U.S. market closed — completely closed, door slammed shut, if you will — to Canadian steel,” said Catherine Cobden, CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association,” the CBC reported.
“U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to double import tariffs on aluminum to 50 per cent will rattle key industries like defence and construction and upend more than a century of cross-border industrial cooperation between Canada and the United States, business and political leaders warn,” The Globe and Mail warned.
And yet, BC Ferries … using a red herring excuse that things are so dire, it had to move “NOW” … ordered four new BC Ferries from a state-owned government shipyard in China.
BC Ferries said when it finally did call for bids, on shorter notice, no Canadian shipyards bid on the project
The vessels they will replace will be more than 40 years old. But surely BC Ferries should have prepared/negotiated with Canadian shipyards ten to twenty years ago to replace vessels in the fleet in an orderly fashion, as needed.
What we’re getting now is spin to cover up the lapse.
“It’s equally vital to me that when there’s no Canadian company willing to bid on the contract, that we don’t leave families sitting on the tarmac waiting for a ferry because the propeller fell off, because it’s 50 years old. We need the ferries urgently, and we’ve got to go,” Premier David Eby was quoted in The Vancouver Sun.
BC Ferries have had previous ferries built in Europe, but China’s bid came in cheaper.
Of course!
China’s state-owned shipyards also produce military vessels for the the Peoples’ Liberation Army, the Chinese Navy and Coast Guard and are heavily subsidized.
Their wages, and I’d bet their working hours/conditions/benefits and environmental factory standards don’t come close to those of Canada (or any of our European allies, who have built BC Ferries before.)
“China is cheaper” is a disgraceful excuse for BC Ferries … Premier David Eby and the BC NDP government to proceed with this project.
But let’s keep it real: if the “China is cheaper” excuse is defensible, there’s no longer any need as well for a Canadian auto industry, boat builders, farm machinery manufacturers, appliance companies, clothing manufacturers, or even prepared food products etc. … China can make them all cheaper.
There’s also the hypocrisy of the federal Liberal government.
Federal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland, hearing about the BC Ferries decision to “Buy Chinese” sent a scathing letter to B.C. Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth.
“I am dismayed that BC Ferries would select a Chinese state-owned shipyard to build new ferries in the current geopolitical context, and I ask that you verify and confirm with utmost certainty that no federal funding will be diverted to support the acquisition of these new ferries,” Freeland wrote in her letter.
However, it turns out, the federal government’s Canada Infrastructure Bank is financing the loan to build the ships overseas! (I don’t make this stuff up! LOL!)
So the BC government, the federal government and BC Ferries are awarding an almost $1 billion contract to China … a human-rights abusing, aggressive dictatorship that took two Canadian businessman hostages for over two years, has arrested/imprisoned political protestors and journalists, threatens a military invasion of Taiwan and has interfered MULTIPLE TIMES in Canada’s electoral process.
But China’s cheaper.
It all makes a mockery and fools of Canadians who are paying more to Buy Canadian … proud citizens who can less afford their daily, weekly, monthly sacrifices to support our workers/businesses than the three government bodies now implicated in the shaft-Canada decision.
And how’s this for sad irony: Sunday another of Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy parties disbanded, due to Chinese government oppression. It was called “The League of Social Democrats”.
How ironic that Premier David Eby and the BC NDP government will be rewarding/enriching the Social Democrats’ oppressors.
The China Ferries contract should be canceled … and BC’s integrity should be restored.
Happy Canada Day … before it gets merged with China’s National Day, Oct 1 … because combining the celebrations would be cheaper.
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