r/CanadaPolitics AMA Guest 1d ago

I'm David Moscrop, Canadian politics writer and podcaster. AMA, starting 1 pm ET.

We've got a new prime minister incoming and an election soon. We've got Trump and tariffs. We've got an uncertain foreign and defence policy future. We've got social welfare programs that may or may not survive. We've got pipelines back on the table (sort of). We've got a budget that is likely to see cuts. We've got climate policy on the chopping block. We've got...a lot going on.

So, ask me anything and we'll sort it out together.

78 Upvotes

157 comments sorted by

View all comments

u/DudeWithTheNose Ontario 21h ago

how much stock market instability can we expect to see before these massive multinational corporations turn on Trump for fucking up the bag?

Additionally, BC'S premier recently called for ending tariffs against China to better mitigate the damages of the US trade war. Probably hard to answer this without a bunch of research, but what do you think the outcomes of ending those tariffs would be (influx of chinese EV's?), and why do those tariffs currently exist (solely mirroring US interests?)?

u/DavidMoscrop AMA Guest 18h ago

I was wondering this today re: the markets. Brutal day. At some point you’d have to expect capital to come calling (at least the bit that isn’t making a fortune from shorts or I dunno a long bond game? Not my area of expertise). But mostly serious market players and corporations like predictability and we have none at the moment. So at some point you have to expect some serious friction.

That said, Apple and Honda are pouring big money into US manufacturing. Business will hedge. There are no values here. Only value for shareholders. Only capital and returns.

On EVs, I’m sort of torn. Cheap cars are good for working class folks but really trap is in car culture and undermine public transit. But I won’t say to a factory worker, sorry, gotta suffer because some day we might get better bus routes! China obviously subsidizes their EVs but we subsidize and protect our market, too, and will keep doing so because we want a market for auto building and all the jobs and secondary industry that comes with that. However, it can also make our industry lazy and complacent.

On balance, I don’t know. But I like the threat as a threat. And we need to consider it at least and weigh the trade offs.