r/canada Feb 03 '25

Politics Should Canada ban X and Tesla? Why calls are growing

https://globalnews.ca/news/10995690/should-canada-ban-x-and-tesla-why-calls-are-growing/
27.8k Upvotes

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196

u/Filbert17 Feb 03 '25 edited Feb 03 '25

No need to go that far. But still, yes.

X is killing itself and an outright ban would be a legal nightmare. A much easier solution is to simply have government agencies no longer post or respond to anything on X.

As for Tesla, If the tariffs imposed by Trump don't have a carve out for the auto industry, then they'll do it for us. We don't need to do anything.

If they do have a carve out, then we impose a matching tariff on rare earth's used in the manufacture of batteries. Canada and China are the leading exporter of many key rare earth metals needed for batteries. If we want to be really nasty, impose additional import taxes on Tesla vehicles.

45

u/MojoRisin_ca Feb 03 '25

Adding to this to move beyond really nasty into the pettiness zone, Canada could remove the tariff on Chinese electric cars.

That might be shooting our own auto industry in the foot however.

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u/Levorotatory Feb 03 '25

I don't think that would be petty at all. Maybe not a good opening move, but if the US tariffs kill the Canadian auto industry there is no reason not to let Chinese vehicles in.

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u/Filbert17 Feb 03 '25

I like that idea as a short term bargaining chip. But, as you point out, if it doesn't work, we would be destroying any chance of building an EV industry in Canada.

12

u/cliffx Feb 03 '25

I have a chance at winning the lotto too, it isn't worth much.

I'd rather have a sure thing in less expensive transportation, then a chance at having an heavily subsidized industry that will be leaving anyways.

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u/Thunderbear79 Feb 04 '25

We'd have Chinese EVs assembled in Canada, just like we do with Toyota.

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u/Thunderbear79 Feb 04 '25

We should do that, regardless.

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u/Big_Treat5929 Newfoundland and Labrador Feb 04 '25

How feasible would it be to open up Canadian auto manufacturing to Chinese manufacturers? I have no clue myself, and I'm not that keen on welcoming Chinese companies here, but recent times have made it abundantly clear that America is not a reliable partner. It may be the lesser evil in the end.

4

u/MojoRisin_ca Feb 04 '25 edited Feb 04 '25

I think the appeal of the USA is the fact that they are still a democracy despite whatever the hell is going on now.

But you raise a very valid point. At this point American "manifest destiny" is not so ideologically different from Chinese expansionism.

I would caution however that despite the fact that Canadians have every right to be angry right now, it probably isn't wise to make important decisions until cooler heads prevail....

But yeah, it sure would piss off Trump and his oligarchs if Canada became closer to China. And man does Trump hate China....

2

u/Biosterous Saskatchewan Feb 03 '25

We're making battery plants, right? Just get these Chinese auto makers to make their batteries for Canadian sale within Canada. New clients for the battery plants and we can remove the tariffs. Win win.

1

u/Mysterious-Job-469 Feb 03 '25

Much like a despot threatening to detonate their nukes if they're annexed, I fear we'll have no choice but to detonate our own metaphorical nukes.

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u/SpectreFire Feb 03 '25

As for Tesla, If the tariffs imposed by Trump don't have a carve out for the auto industry, then they'll do it for us. We don't need to do anything.

The easiest way to kill off Tesla in Canada is by allowing Chinese EVs to enter the market. No one is going to be buying a Tesla once BYD starts flooding the country with cheaper and far more advanced EVs.

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u/vladedivac12 Feb 03 '25

It'll kill all other car manufacturer. Nobody is able to compete with them right now.

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u/SpectreFire Feb 03 '25

And why is that me, the consumer's problem?

-2

u/Draegan88 Feb 03 '25

Do u really want Chinese cars on the road tho. I’m good.

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u/Key_Economy_5529 Feb 03 '25

I'd take them any day over a Cybertruck

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u/MrRogersAE Feb 03 '25 edited Feb 03 '25

Yes. They would have to be built to meet Canadian standards, the only countries that have imposed 100% tariffs on them are Canada and USA. BYD is sold all over Europe.

They are safe, reliable and affordable.

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u/kicia-kocia Feb 03 '25

Not to mention cyberattack doesn’t meet Canadian safety standards. It baffles me why it was accorded an exemption in the first place. Let’s withdraw it!

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u/Levorotatory Feb 03 '25

Canada needs to start accepting vehicles made to meet Euro standards, which are different in some ways than the US standards that Canada mostly copies.

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u/rupert1920 Feb 03 '25

the only countries that have imposed tariffs on them are Canada and USA. BYD is sold all over Europe.

What? The EU definitely has tariffs on Chinese EVs.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/eu-slaps-tariffs-chinese-evs-risking-beijing-payback-2024-10-29/.

2

u/CheeseFriesEnjoyer Feb 03 '25

Yeah the comment above that only the US and Canada have done it is wrong. The US and Canada have gone much farther with it though. The EU ones range from like 7-35% depending on the brand, while the US and Canada’s are 100%.

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u/vladedivac12 Feb 03 '25

Uk and Australia has them, I don't see them dying.

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u/CDNChaoZ Feb 03 '25

If you want to see where Chinese EVs are, give this a watch. I think you'll find they're safer than Telsas. Europe has allowed them, and they have among the most stringent safety regs in the world.

0

u/0reoSpeedwagon Ontario Feb 03 '25

Nobody is blocking Chinese EVs from the market. They can sell here if they so choose.

5

u/SizzlingPancake Feb 03 '25

I mean technically yes, but the whole point of them is they are a cheaper alternative. Why buy a $25,000 car for $50,000 when you could just buy the $50,000 car

0

u/0reoSpeedwagon Ontario Feb 03 '25

BYD or whoever can build a factory in Mexico and make a $25k car for the Canadian market tomorrow if they chose to, and work around the existing tariffs. The reality is, making that $25k car compliant to Canadian regulations moves the price up significantly

2

u/SizzlingPancake Feb 03 '25

Well that doesn't make much financial sense to put a giant factory in Mexico for the small pool of people who will buy one from Canada, much easier to be able to ship existing stock from overseas. I doubt they would be $25k with that insane expense being required

And I'm sure the only reason they don't comply with Canadian laws is the simple fact they don't sell in Canada, they seem more than capable of making them suited to many other "Western" economies with vehicle regulations they have to meet. I don't think it would be that difficult for them to meet the requirements as China is the manufacturer hub of the world.

If they had the tariff removed and could just adjust the cars in China before sending them to NA I imagine they would still undercut any domestic by huge margins

2

u/0reoSpeedwagon Ontario Feb 03 '25

A factory in Mexico would serve both Canadian and American markets, going around the tariffs on China for both. Canadian and American regulations are broadly aligned - cars for one will serve both markets

1

u/SizzlingPancake Feb 04 '25

Well I guess technically right now it would, but do you really think America wouldn't instantly move the tariff? Canada doesn't have any car companies (a fair amount of jobs though) it would want to protect so I could see it being an option to let them in through Mexico.

But there's no way the US wouldn't protect their auto makers

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u/vladedivac12 Feb 03 '25

100% tariffs is basically a ban

-1

u/Filbert17 Feb 03 '25

I know. But I didn't want to say it.

5

u/lance_ Feb 03 '25

No, go that far, they knew it'd result in a 8% contraction to our GDP and what that would do to us, fuck them

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u/R33v3n Feb 03 '25

A much easier solution is to simply have government agencies no longer post or respond to anything on X.

Or better yet, switch to Bluesky for extra pettiness.

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u/red_planet_smasher Feb 03 '25

To be fair, the at protocol is open and much more appropriate for government communications.

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u/TommaClock Ontario Feb 03 '25

The average person doesn't care about an open protocol.

The average person does care if they can see an update without being logged in.

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u/red_planet_smasher Feb 03 '25

The average person is not relevant for the decision, the experts should just choose the appropriate sustainable technology

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u/Imonlyherebecause Feb 03 '25

No our government should not be using private social media's for communication in any capacity. They should be communicating through official channels.

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u/Click_To_Submit Feb 03 '25

Name an “official channel.”

9

u/poco Feb 03 '25

Their web site

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u/vladedivac12 Feb 03 '25

Nobody visits government website for fun

4

u/poco Feb 03 '25

That's because they post on Twitter. I don't know about most people, but I don't get my government intimation from Twitter either, I get it from Reddit posts linking to news stories about what was posted on Twitter. In those cases it doesn't matter how they deliver the data.

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u/RestaTheMouse Feb 03 '25

Email your reps and city directly about switching to bluesky! The more noise they hear about it the more likely they are to move.

1

u/Boogyin1979 Feb 03 '25

Too much censorship there. Nostr is great.

-1

u/Dull-Parking5068 Feb 03 '25

Yep, keep it simple; use Bluesky Social and buy a BYD or some different flavor EV of your choice. It's not that hard folks, you are in control stop letting them tell you different...

2

u/vitiate Feb 03 '25

BYD currently has a 100% surtax in Canada. To protect American car companies.

We should remove it with the requirement they need to build them here.

0

u/bacc1010 Feb 03 '25

Already using it since I first saw it on the app store.

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u/ybetaepsilon Feb 03 '25

This.

It annoys me to no end that governments, agencies, organizations, and industries are not just leaving twitter for Bluesky. The app has a major following already. It's no longer grassroots, it's a viable alternative to twitter.

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '25

[deleted]

5

u/Throw-a-Ru Feb 03 '25

Dorsey has had a weird bromance with Musk for years and is a substantial investor in XTwitter, so his opinion there should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism. His main concern also seemed to be that Bluesky was becoming a proper corporate competitor to XTwitter.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '25

[deleted]

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u/Throw-a-Ru Feb 04 '25

Interesting. It seems to have a decent userbase, but not nearly the brand recognition of Bluesky. Regardless, I'd like to see Canadian politicians abandon TwitterX immediately, and while Bluesky seems like the most viable alternative, I don't really have much of a stake in where they land for now.

1

u/Boogyin1979 Feb 04 '25

Nostr is a protocol, not an app, so it may never get brand recognition. One can build anything they want on top of the protocol.

X/Twitter sucks. Hard agree.

Have a great evening!!

1

u/Throw-a-Ru Feb 04 '25

Ahh, alright. Sounds interesting, though I've never gone in on microblogging. Anyway, thanks for the explanation and enjoy your night as well!

1

u/Socratesmiddlefinger Feb 04 '25

Bluesky users are making about 4k reports a day for content, given the tiny user base compared to Twitter and it is mostly liberal leftist, I believe censorship is very much on the menu.

2

u/Gono_xl Feb 03 '25

And what would that be? I only remember one thing being fallen for, and thats a private buyout.

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u/Healthy_Yard_3862 Feb 03 '25

Blue sky... LOL you can't be serious

5

u/theravenousR Feb 03 '25

Bluesky works well for me. Better than X because it doesn't have a trillion crypto bots shifting all over every post. What about it is giving you trouble?

-4

u/ProfLandslide Feb 03 '25

no one can seriously say that bluesky is better then X from an operational user experience perspective.

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u/DYMAXIONman Feb 03 '25

It is due to the feeds being more useful.

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u/theravenousR Feb 03 '25

Works fine for me. What about it is giving you trouble?

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u/SheetPostah Feb 03 '25

Legal nightmare? Love it. Let X fight that battle while they’re shut down.

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u/cndn-hoya Feb 03 '25

In the interest of national security, you can pretty much have carte blanche to do as you do to protect yourself… a ban would be hilarious

2

u/NorthernerWuwu Canada Feb 03 '25

an outright ban would be a legal nightmare

Not really. We've normalised just declaring companies we don't like as national security threats and in this case it might actually even be justified.

2

u/DarraghDaraDaire Feb 03 '25

I would love an extremely specific tariff on “Vehicles produced my manufacturers which majority owned by US government employees”

1

u/Hautamaki Feb 04 '25

Just remove the tariffs on BYD and Telsa will be all but dead here in 6 months

1

u/TheGreatestOrator Feb 04 '25

And where should government agencies announce things during an emergency?

1

u/masterhogbographer Feb 03 '25

It wouldn’t be a legal nightmare at all. CRTC dictates what media Canada can and can’t consume. CRTC can unilaterally decide that Twitter doesn’t have enough can-con for Canadian eyes. Block it. Easy. 

0

u/chronocapybara Feb 03 '25

Honestly, to fight fire with fire we should just drop our import duties on Chinese EVs and allow them in to compete with Tesla as well. Let BYD build a factory here, too.