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Premier Ford,
You have made some comments asking Quebecers to scale back ambition regarding the electrification of our vehicles. We'd like to make it clear from the outset that we don't place much value on your opinion when it comes to transportation. If you'd like to know why, here are a few reasons.
You were set on building an entire highway network through the Greenbelt to connect new suburbs until the Ontario Provincial Police and the RCMP dampened your enthusiasm by laying corruption charges against your government.
You fantasized about destroying the bike lanes that keep Toronto cyclists safe, with a bill that your own courts deemed unconstitutional.
You want to sink billions of public funds into a tunnel to replace the Gardiner Expressway, and to bring jets to Billy Bishop Airport, a "visionary" move for an airport that will quickly become obsolete once the high speed rail project is built in a few years.
You're asking Quebec to abandon vehicle electrification because the United States has done so, saying that it would prove that we're playing for Team Canada. We'd like you to explain to us why following what the United States is doing is a good idea, rather than opting for a truly Canadian automotive strategy to strengthen our autonomy.
It's perfectly legitimate to have concerns about the future of jobs in the Canadian auto sector, a major economic driver in Southern Ontario. But in the automotive industry, the future is electric. If the government wishes to protect itself against political volatility south of the border and maintain jobs, the logical decision would be to focus on the production of electric vehicles.
Unfortunately, North American manufacturers have chosen to produce vehicles that are too large and too expensive. They don't fit into the budgets of many families, and their drivers are vulnerable when energy crises are manufactured out of thin air by our American neighbour.
For someone who has accustomed us to theatrical gestures to show your opposition to the trade wars, your subservience on this dossier demonstrates your dependence on the United States and betrays a selective sense of indignation.
It is not Quebec’s responsibility to uphold the poor choices of a backward industry, whose CEOs chose to blindly applaud an announcement on the abolition of emission standards and energy efficiency improvements in the Oval Office last December. We dare them to go and applaud that same decision today in front of their fellow citizens who are being impoverished at any gas station on the continent...
In Quebec, we made our energy production choices long ago and we have adopted policies that align with those choices. We will not go backwards on electrification because another province is a prisoner of its own bad decisions. We therefore take your request with as much seriousness as if Alberta asked us to give up hydroelectric production because the American President prefers coal.
We could, however, help you implement better mobility and electrification policies in order to meet the needs of your citizens and reduce transportation costs (while having a beneficial effect on the environment and air quality as well!). That would be more useful than your unsolicited advice on how to be a little more like the United States.
Stay in your lane, Doug.
This letter was originally published in Le Devoir on March 23, 2026.
