Preface: I do not like what domestic autos are building. I do not like F-150, RAM. I do not like SUVs either. We're building and driving way too large cars that impact us negatively in multiple ways. BTW almost all Japanese cars are made in North America too. Many of them in Canada.

I see a few people talk about the non-existence of a Canadian EV industry so writing here instead of replying individually.

From Wikipedia:

Automotive manufacturing is one of Canada's largest industrial sectors, accounting for 10% of manufacturing GDP and 23% of manufacturing trade. Canada produces passenger vehicles, trucks and buses, auto parts and systems, truck bodies and trailers, as well as tires and machine, tools, dies and molds (MTDM). The auto industry directly employs more than 125,000 people in vehicle assembly and auto parts manufacturing, and another 380,000 in distribution and aftermarket sales and service.

Many of the manufacturing jobs are well paid union jobs and most will transition to building EVs long term.

EV manufacturing is still being built out. There is significant investment in the pipeline. There's likely more to come (to Canada) if Harris wins the US election. Many are battery plants but those will feed into North American EVs whether built in Canada, US or Mexico. These vehicles will sell in North America too. If there's no market for them, there's no need for the battery manufacturing either. There's no need for the jobs. The incomes that feed into the automaker adjacent communities dries up. Other parts of the local economies contract because of that. The extra income from the savings from buying Chinese EVs might not be enough to replace the loss. We also lose the ability to make EVs long term which increases our dependence on China, regardless of whether you like China or not.

Someone mentioned forcing domestic autos to make smaller and cheaper EVs. I think that's a grand idea. Likely not gonna happen with an LPC/CPC gov't but still.

Another way to get smaller and cheaper EVs without deindustrializing parts of Canada would be to force China's EV makers to open factories in Canada. Cheap and small Canadian-made BYD would still be cheaper and smaller than large and expensive EVs. If the North American autos refuse to make them and fail at the hands of domestic BYD, the existing workers will be able to staff BYDs new factories at decent wages duo to collective bargaining and we'll retain the ability to build EVs in Canada long term. If something happens with China in two decades and 95% of all vehicles come from these factories, we still have the factories and workers, we can run them without China if needed and keep our car-dependent economy going. So how do we force BYD to open up shop in Canada? Tariffs. This is already happening in the EU. BYD will be building factories in Hungary and Turkey. There's talk of another in Italy.

If we made no vehicles in Canada, had no significant number of workers doing it, had no reasonable prospects of building the cars that will be driven 20 years from now, then tariffs on Chinese EVs today would be completely counterproductive.