Is there something in Canada that prevents auto manufacturing anywhere besides Ontario. Ford of Ontario not Detroit seems to be as stupid as he looks so if they do start manufacturing Chinese EVs in Canada, they should avoid Ontario. Just like in the US because Trump doesn't want to be outdone by Canada is talking about letting Chinese EV companies manufacture in the US but it shouldn't anywhere they've been anti-China.
This question has to do with geography and is linked to:
“Why is most auto manufacturing in America located near or around the Midwest?”
The answer is logistics and resources.
To make a car, you need steel, to make steel, you need iron ore and coal. Iron from the Iron Range in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and coal from the Appalachian Mountains, meet roughly in the American Midwest, particularly around Michigan. Ore and coal are transported in bulk on the Great Lakes, often to their southernmost point at Gary, Indiana. The steel produced is then turned into vehicles in places like Detroit, Lansing, Flint, and others.
Ontario, having access to four of the five Great Lakes, is also a beneficiary of this system. Iron ore went to Hamilton, and the steel went to places like Chatham and Oshawa, where it was used to produce first domestic cars and later local variants of American manufacturers, often with American-supplied parts.
Massive hydroelectric plants in Quebec around the 1960s eventually made Quebec manufacturing competitive. Cheap hydropower made energy-intensive metals like aluminum competitive, and soon an aircraft industry developed.
Around this time, however, the
was signed, lowering tariffs on car parts in exchange for access to the American market for assembled cars. This favored existing Canadian branches of American car companies, making them very competitive, as they no longer needed a separate Canadian model and could simply sell directly to the U.S.
And it has been that way ever since. Despite the massive advantage of cheap power, access to American financial capital and markets means manufacturing tends to favor industries already linked to the American market. Quebec’s persistent attempts to build its own manufacturing base have met with
, despite considerable funding.
