When a government starts telling you what kind of car to buy, it’s overstepping. That’s exactly what Canada’s electric vehicle (EV) sales mandate is doing. Ottawa has declared that by 2035, all
It might sound like progress on paper. In practice, it’s anything but.
OTTAWA — One of the key barriers that seemed to be facing the Carney government’s plans to fast-track big projects designed to boost the Canadian economy — namely, climate concerns — appears now to be not much of an obstacle at all when it comes to public opinion.
A new Leger poll released Friday asked Canadians about what they thought were the biggest challenges facing Canada. Trade and tariff issues and U.S. relations were No. 1, at 20 per cent. But climate change, one of the federal government’s key objections in recent years to building or expanding pipelines, ports and other big projects, was way down the list, a “third tier” issue, said Leger executive vice-president Andrew Enns.
OTTAWA — Canada’s electric vehicle mandate is under fire from Washington — and if it falls, one of the biggest losers could be Elon Musk.
That’s because the mandate, a climate change policy from the Justin Trudeau era, requires carmakers to hit 20 percent EV sales by 2026, or else buy credits from companies that have exceeded the goal. In Canada, that means they have to buy credits from Tesla, because it only sells EVs.
The Eco-Fanatics must be so torn.
Two recent events exemplify the fundamental irrationality that is Canada’s electric vehicle (EV) policy.
First, the Carney government re-committed to Justin Trudeau’s EV transition mandate that by 2035 all (that’s 100%) of new car sales in Canada consist of “zero-emission vehicles” including battery EVs, plug-in hybrid EVs and fuel-cell powered vehicles (which are virtually non-existent in today’s market). This policy has been a foolish idea since inception. The mass of car-buyers in Canada showed little desire to buy them in 2022, when the government announced the plan, and they still don’t want them.
Of all the coercive environmental policies implemented by the Trudeau government, the electric vehicle mandate was among the worst, but Prime Minister Mark Carney has been mum on whether Ottawa still intends to force Canadians to ride around in souped-up Power Wheels.
A friendly breeze blows out of Ottawa these days, but there’s a chance it’s nothing more than wind.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is all about development, energy, pipelines — one big Canadian economy.
He speaks of Alberta’s energy industry with none of the contempt so common in the Justin Trudeau years.
Prime Minister Mark Carney promised a swift, businesslike reboot of a Canadian economy battered by a decade of overspending and regulatory overreach. Yet just over two months into his term, his public statements are often hedged or shrouded in ambiguity and his policy direction remains unclear.
For months, Prime Minister Mark Carney has spoken about making Canada an energy superpower. He said it on the campaign trail, mentioned it again in an interview with CTV news in May, and dropped it again last weekend at the Calgary Stampede. While he usually inserts the qualifier of “both clean and conventional energy,” in an interview Saturday he stated that it’s “highly, highly likely” that at least one oil pipeline will make the government’s list of national strategic infrastructure projects.
It’s not the first time Ontario Premier Doug Ford has talked this way.
He’s done it before.
He’s done at times when he wants to make clear what he will do if push comes to shove.
What if Prime Minister Mark Carney ends up being more talk than walk?
Sure he won’t.
EVs are almost comically unsuited to a vast, cold country like Canada.
Justin Trudeau’s legacy is alive and well in Mark Carney’s iteration of Canada’s Liberal Party. While the former PM’s deeply unpopular carbon tax may have been scrapped, his spirit of phony solutions to the ‘climate-change crisis’ prevails.
Across the border, US president Donald Trump has nixed any attempts at electric-vehicle (EV) mandates, saying, ‘electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one’. By contrast, the Canadian Liberal Party has maintained its plan to ensure 20 per cent of new passenger vehicles sold in 2026 are either battery-powered or plug-in hybrid models. It intends to increase that number to 60 per cent by 2030, and to 100 per cent by 2035.
OTTAWA — The premiers of Alberta and Ontario both said at a meeting Monday that they are cautiously optimistic that Prime Minister Mark Carney will successfully get a new oil pipeline built in Canada. But Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the planning should not be limited to just one.
Meeting with her Ontario counterpart in Calgary, Smith said Alberta crude oil should have access to a “growing share” of pipelines. “I’m of the view there’s probably room for more than one pipeline, probably several.”
Environment group warns against repealing federal EV mandate
An environmental think tank is warning the federal government against repealing its electric vehicle mandate, instead suggesting that politicians should be helping to put more EVs on the road.
In a statement published Friday, Clean Energy Canada gave three recommendations to the federal government to help deliver affordable EVs to Canadians for less than $40,000.
The group, based out of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, said Ottawa should retool its EV mandate by revisiting its near-term targets to help the auto sector “weather this temporary storm” of slumping EV sales.
It’s not always the unexpected that gets governments in trouble — often enough it’s their own bad judgement, poor timing or general clumsiness that gets in the way. But the unanticipated does happen a lot.
Parties and politicians put time and effort into concocting a set of policies aimed at winning votes by proposing remedies to problems identified as occupying top rungs of current voter concern. If they’re lucky they get elected, presumably intending to put those policies into effect at the earliest opportunity. Then the world shifts and pulls the rug from under them.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s tight-lipped approach to climate change is causing some environmental groups to question his leadership, while others say it’s too early to judge the new PM whom they say has room to live up to election pledges addressing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Since entering the Prime Minister’s Office, Carney (Nepean, Ont.) has rarely spoken about the climate. Instead, the former banker has continued to focus on economic development, sticking to what secured his ticket to office as voters flocked behind the new Liberal leader’s message of securing Canada’s future and diversifying trade relationships in response to American tariff threats. But Carney’s silence on the subject isn’t alarming to all environmental advocates—some say Carney’s record on climate prior to taking public office, coupled with “welcome” campaign commitments, suggest strong policies could be advanced when the House returns this fall.
Fellow Eco-Nutz seem happy enough with Carney so far. Not a good sign for the real world.
It should be evident to Albertans that the province is on a collision course with the federal Liberal government, driven by a fundamental disagreement: will Alberta and Western Canada be allowed to fully develop its hydrocarbon endowment, or will that economic value be lost in pursuit of the climate policy known as “net zero”?
This collision is inevitable and imminent. Net zero is difficult to reconcile with growing, or even sustaining, existing hydrocarbon production in Canada.
Sometimes you get the impression the Liberals want Alberta gone.
