Chris Selley: Canadian protectionism is on the march
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But now consider this headline from hell in the Toronto Star this week: 'Everyone wants the new TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) subway cars to be made in Canada.'
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'Everyone' in this case is all three levels of government involved: Toronto city council, led by an NDP mayor; the provincial government, led by a Progressive Conservative premier; and the federal government, led by a Liberal prime minister. So, not literally everyone, though I get the sense we're not far away from the latter, even as we're supposedly trying to project a free-trading image to the world. Right and left are united, at least rhetorically, on the 'buy Canadian' thing.
When Rob Ford won the Toronto mayoral election in 2010, bringing brother Doug along with him to city council, one of their major complaints against former mayor David Miller was that under his watch, the city had paid far too much for new subway cars in order to ensure they were built by Bombardier in Thunder Bay, Ont. — which is more than a 15-hour drive from Toronto, and which many Torontonians probably couldn't place on a map.
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As the 'Canada is not for sale' premier, Doug Ford is now David Miller. 'I am requesting that the City of Toronto recognize this historic opportunity and consider a sole-source procurement with Alstom, which would support Ontario workers in Thunder Bay and across our province,' Ford's provincial Transport Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria wrote recently to the city. (Alstom, a French company, gobbled up Bombardier Transportation in 2021.)
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'With the procurement of these subway trains, I am supportive of any action that accomplishes a build Canada option in a manner that is consistent with the city of Toronto's legal obligations,' federal Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson wrote to Mayor Olivia Chow this week.
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Any action? If I'm Alstom right now, I'm seeing nothing but dollar signs.
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It's one thing to rule out American or Chinese companies. I wouldn't — the best deal is the best deal — but it's at least coherent: China is not a Canadian ally, and Trump is taking dead aim at the Canadian economy. But the past few decades have seen a very welcome move away from protectionism in public-transit procurement.
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