#Canada

Contracts talks between the Canadian Auto Workers and the Detroit 3 won’t start before August. But combattants are already lobbing grenades across the border. Ford of Canada told Reuters that Canada is now the most expensive place in the world to make cars.

In case you’re all wondering why I’m so blasé about compact hatchbacks and wagons, a good chunk of it has to do with the fact that I see them everywhere, every single day (the other portion is simply because it’s fun to needle you folks every now and then).

Here’s to all my American friends and readers; your glorious country is 236 years old, still the land of opportunity, where immigrants from all over the world flock to make their dreams come true. But you must wait an absurdly long time to import clapped-out world-market hot hatches, like this Peugeot 106 GTI. Soviet Canuckistan isn’t so bad now, is it?

There’s an annual Show and Shine every Canada day here on Saltspring island. The choir sings the forgotten verses to Oh Canada and the band plays the Victory March (the Monty Python theme tune) and the bagpipers skirl and you have a choice of dried-out cheeseburgers or falafel. Like all the best car-shows, it’s a weird, homogenous mix of stuff, and this ’36 GM truck caught my eye right away.

Then I listened to the owner talk about it, and knew I had to share.

Currently, two of TTAC’s regular writers are lumberjacks dirty communists Canadians: myself and Derek Kreindler. Today we celebrate our country’s one hundred and forty fifth year of being a sort of chillier, politer version of Australia.

I love Canada. It’s really… big. It’s big. Sure we discovered insulin and invented the pacemaker and created that game that’s a bit like hockey except there’s some baskets and a big orange thingy that you bounce around (can’t remember the name, tip of the tongue), but really, all true sons and daughters of the North are proud of one thing above all else: Canada’s the biggest country in the world. Apart from Russia, of course.

As part of their bailout package, General Motors agreed that at least 16 percent of its North American production would take place in Canada. The closing of the Oshawa consolidated line may cause GM to be in violation of those terms.

Calling Canada “ the most expensive place in the world to build a car right now“, Dan Akerson threw his hat into the “ hourly wage costs need to come down” ring at GM’s annual shareholders meeting on Tuesday.

The Big Three sent letters to the Canadian Auto Workers union Wednesday, asking them to forgo a small wage increase as a means of keeping Canadian plants competitive.

With news of Volkswagen apparently considering the Amarok pickup for sale in Canada comes the strange sense of deja vu that us socialist Northerners get whenever an enticing, not-sold-in-America product is discussed.

General Motors will announce tomorrow that their consolidated line at Oshawa, currently building both the Chevrolet Equinox and Chevrolet Impala, will close. 2,000 of the 4,000 jobs at the Oshawa plant are located at the consolidated factory, and GM apparently won’t be re-investing in the facility.

Canadian Car crooks have an affliction for Asian automobiles. According to a list of the 10 most stolen cars in Canada – 2011, published by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), half of the cars are Japanese, with Toyotas and Hondas taking the podium.

And the losers are:

As TTAC’s official reviewer of all things “emerging market cast-offs sent to Canada”, I’ll be busy again in Q4 2012, when I get my hands on a Chevrolet Trax.

A day after a government commissioned report about the auto industry surfaced, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters that he would seek ways to help assist the auto industry as a thank you to the province’s “…leading goal scorer”.

A study commissioned by Canada’s federal government suggests that Canada could be in a position to benefit from strong auto sales from the Big Three OEMs, and a lack of capacity could lead to more manufacturing jobs for Canada, including the revival of mothballed factories.

No, TTAC hasn’t been hijacked by car dealers other than Mr. Lang. Scouring the local newspapers, TTAC’s Great White North contingent found brand new Fiat 500s being sold for the incredible price of $12,995 for the base “Pop” model.