Fair comment Daisy.
By special request, let’s discuss our favourite Classic Music and why?
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News & politics
GM Shutdown Hits Canada — Ottawa Fires Back With a Brutal Counter
(44 Posts)Yet again I'm grateful we can get a wide view of politics thanks to the internet. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEa73xqplGA
Transcript (not full)
So General Motors just shut down every one of its remaining manufacturing operations in Canada. Not scaled back, not restructured, not transitioned to a reduced footprint while the trade environment stabilizes. Shut down every assembly plant, every parts facility, every engineering center. The Ashawa assembly complex, one of the most productive auto plants in North America, a facility that has been building vehicles for nearly a century, the economic heartbeat of an entire city, the St. Catherine's powertrain facility, the Markham Technical Center, the Woodstock Parts operation, all of it closed.
11,000 workers told their jobs are gone. Not because they failed, not because the plants were unprofitable, not because they built a bad product, but because a foreign government told their employer to leave. And the announcement came wrapped in corporate language about strategic portfolio optimization and global capacity realignment. Language designed with the precision of a legal department that has done this before to make the destruction of 11,000 livelihoods sound like an accounting adjustment. Ottawa didn't beg to stay. Ottawa didn't offer a penny in subsidies. Ottawa didn't negotiate. Within 72 hours, Mark Carney announced the Canadian Automotive Sovereignty Initiative, a 12 billion dollar plan to replace every job GM eliminated with something GM never anticipated. A Canadian-owned, globally partnered electric vehicle and advanced manufacturing ecosystem built on the exact factory sites GM is abandoning.
European, Japanese, and South Korean automakers have already committed to production partnerships. Every displaced GM worker has been guaranteed priority placement, fully funded retraining and wage protection during the transition. And one provision in the initiative, a regulatory measure targeting critical battery mineral exports, just put a chokeold on GM's own electric vehicle supply chain that the company's board of directors reportedly called the most aggressive regulatory action a government has ever taken against a departing manufacturer. Warren Buffett said GM just made the most expensive exit in corporate history, not because of what it lost in Canada, but because of what Canada took from it on the way out. And then he explained why abandoning a country that controls your supply chain is the one business decision that cannot be survived. But the line that every displaced auto worker in Ontario is repeating tonight, the line Carney delivered standing on the floor of the shuttered GM assembly plant in Ashawa, surrounded by workers who had just lost their livelihoods, some still wearing their uniforms, some holding their ID badges. Some holding their children as 11 words that turned a corporate shutdown into a national declaration of intent.
"They closed a factory. We're going to build an industry."
When you understand the real reason GM left Canada, the human cost the corporate press release was designed to hide, what the 12 billion initiative actually built, how the mineral provision just crippled GM's electric vehicle future, what Buffett said about the one mistake a company doesn't recover from and why this shutdown will cost GM more than it will ever Canada, You'll understand why this isn't a plant closure. It's the beginning of the end of GM's competitive position in the electric vehicle market and GM did it to itself.
Siptree
This is not a true story, it's on a lot of YouTube/ pidcast type sites. If this were true it would have been major news everywhere and probably headlined the FT at least. A wide view of politics is one thing this is another.
Out of interest, would you apply the same standard to stories from UK outlets like the Daily Mail or The Telegraph? If a big claim only appeared there and nowhere else internationally, would you trust it?
My thoughts exactly!
Everyone knows GM didnt really do it to themselves. We all know who did it in reality. Whose orders it was. Who has thrown the baby out with the bath water. Or more appropriate thrown their rattle out of the pram. I hope the rest of the World does the same when he starts on them.
petra
My son in law works for Group 1. They are an American car dealership. They have 117 dealerships in the uk.
The moto trade are going through a rough ride at the moment.
Another US giant Sytner, is also gobbling up UK car dealerships
I was always impressed by Mark Carney and I think the Canadians are lucky to have him.
NannyC1
friedgreentomatoes
Actually Carney did a good job at the BoE during covid,brexit and having Liz truss to deal with!
Yes. He was ours. And he wasn’t appreciated at the time. He advised the electorate to remain in the EU but some people ignored him because he was a foreigner.
KPMG is based in aboriginal non-ceded territories, so you can spot bias.
Canada is on the list as 5th least racist worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/least-racist-countries
FriedGreenTomatoes2
Mark Carney? 😂😂
No thanks he was rubbish at the BoE.
Think he was the one that kept the rate stable and helped with out national debt situation
My son in law works for Group 1. They are an American car dealership. They have 117 dealerships in the uk.
The moto trade are going through a rough ride at the moment.
Maremia
petra posted that upthread already.
Thank you.
Cossy
Good for Carney and I disagree that he made a mess in our BoE!
He’s an exceptionally sharp man, with the courage and conviction to push forward with his beliefs and plans, who truly cares about his citizens and his country.
We spent 3 weeks last year, travelled from Vancouver to Ottawa, seeing family and friends and exploring their beautiful clean country. It’s not perfect, but it offers their citizens and their indigenous people hope.
Many leaders could learn from Canada’s morals and objectives.
If we were younger we would certainly consider living there.
Racism is alive and kicking in Canada. It’s their dirty secret.
Not all is sweetness and light.
kpmg.com/ca/en/insights/2024/03/racism-remains-an-ugly-reality-for-many-in-canada.html
Lovely story - but just that sadly! Not true at all. And even the wonderful MC would need superhero powers to pull off that level of industrial restructuring.
Fake news - warning signs on the YouTube channel which was created in Feb to pump out anti-Trump/pro Canada content.
Yes, I always double check sensational stories for reliable sources. Unfortunately it's essential these days.
petra posted that upthread already.
Siptree
This is not a true story, it's on a lot of YouTube/ pidcast type sites. If this were true it would have been major news everywhere and probably headlined the FT at least. A wide view of politics is one thing this is another.
That must be why I cannot find the story on any reputable news sites.
This is not a true story, it's on a lot of YouTube/ pidcast type sites. If this were true it would have been major news everywhere and probably headlined the FT at least. A wide view of politics is one thing this is another.
FriedGreenTomatoes2 I absolutely agree with you, but I fear you are a lone voice in the wilderness with this group. As for Liz Truss, she most certainly was not rubbish, more like a lamb to the slaughter.
Fake news I’m afraid.
Lizzy Truss, now she was 'rubbish'.
friedgreentomatoes
Actually Carney did a good job at the BoE during covid,brexit and having Liz truss to deal with!
Carney seems to be pro-active in finding ways to survive Trump's unsound tariffs policies.
FriedGreenTomatoes2
Car manufacturers have dismissed the prospect of drivers rushing to buy electric vehicles as the war in the Middle East drives up petrol prices.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said the idea that a higher cost for filling up will prompt consumers to embrace battery cars is a “simplistic assumption”.
So hang onto your hats Canada. With Carney at the wheel what could possibly go wrong. Oh wait ….
LOL..do you know how many provinces power most of their domestic homes and industries by Hydro??
Well done Carney- a measured, intelligent, well thought out, confident and hope inspiring response. Just what Canada and indeed the world needs right now.
Good for Carney and I disagree that he made a mess in our BoE!
He’s an exceptionally sharp man, with the courage and conviction to push forward with his beliefs and plans, who truly cares about his citizens and his country.
We spent 3 weeks last year, travelled from Vancouver to Ottawa, seeing family and friends and exploring their beautiful clean country. It’s not perfect, but it offers their citizens and their indigenous people hope.
Many leaders could learn from Canada’s morals and objectives.
If we were younger we would certainly consider living there.
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