Doug Ford hates electric vehicles but he wants to make more of them

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, in his usual muddled way, wants to establish the province as a leader in the manufacture of electric cars (EVs) which, like it or not - and Ford definitely likes it not - are the vehicles of the future.

Ontario has, through no efforts of Premier Ford himself, managed to secure contracts for big auto makers like Ford and GM to build EVs here. But Mr. Ford wants more.

This is the same Doug Ford who, among his very first actions as Premier, scrapped Ontario's generous $14,000 EV rebates (at the same time as he scrapped the cap-and-trade system that funded them), stopped building charging stations (and even removed some!), and dropped a requirement for new homes to include the wiring for EV chargers. All told, Ford has done more than anyone else to discourage electric vehicles in Ontario. 

Mr. Ford certainly has no intention of reintroducing EV subsidies, although Prime Minister Trudeau may do it for him. But then, you see, he doesn't necessarily want to see EVs on the street, he just wants the big auto manufacturers to be producing them here. He's a complicated man is Doug Ford, that's about as charitable as I can be.