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Building the Canadian Car – Part 2

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Economics

Project Arrow – the timing is NOW

Doug Anderson

Aug 22, 2026

I wrote Part 1 of this almost exactly a year ago (Aug 30, 2025) when the initial 25% American tariffs (April 3, 2025) had been in place for a few months and initial efforts to have them lifted had failed.

The premise of that article was: “So with all the expertise we’ve acquired and all the parts plants we have, it makes sense that our response to Trump’s tariffs should be to start building a Canadian car.”

Well those tariffs just went up dramatically.

The Canadian Auto Parts Manufacturers’ Association has been a leader in automotive technology, and some years ago they “launched the first, original, full-build, zero-emission concept vehicle named Project Arrow in 2023. An all-Canadian effort, it was designed, engineered and built through the joint efforts of our world-class automotive supply sector and post-secondary institutions.”

In … More

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Further Thoughts on Licensing AI

ByDoug Anderson Economics, Government Policy, Lateral Thinking
Doug Anderson

Aug 15, 2026

I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago that licensing AI projects would be far more effective than trying to regulate an industry that even its leading purveyors are unable to manage.

We license all kinds of potential dangers. Not only do you have to be over sixteen to drive but you have to pass a test and carry a piece of paper that says you’ve passed those tests. Older people like me have to pass additional tests in order to keep that license. If you’re caught breaking the rules of the road your license can be taken away.

We license doctors, electricians, gas fitters and just about every other profession where there are potential harms to the public. All of these are regulated by requiring their practitioners to be licensed.

So why would we treat … More

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Regulating AI may be impossible

ByDoug Anderson Economics, Government Policy, Lateral Thinking, Media, Communications, Paradigm Shift

Government licensing is the better idea

Public opinion is giving AI a pretty rough ride right now due to concerns about water, electricity and runaway machines. All of those concerns are legitimate.

The standard answer to these concerns is “we need to regulate it” but does anybody (excluding the companies that are designing it) know enough about it to figure out what regulating it would actually look like. Probably not! The problem is that it is developing so fast (including autonomously) that today’s regulations will almost certainly fail to control it even months down the road.

There is a better solution – government licensing. We already have a model here in Canada with the CRTC which licenses broadcasting outlets (radio & TV). Licensing was more or less essential there because there was limited bandwidth. However Canada could decide that the need for AI was limited by the “public good”. By … More

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My $7 Billion Pee & Poop Article

ByDoug Anderson Agriculture, Economics, Health, Lateral Thinking, Paradigm Shift

Nature’s Nutrient Plan – the Better Way

Doug Anderson

Apr 27, 2026

If you do any gardening … or even have a lawn, chances are you’ve bought more than a few bags of fertilizer in the past. But before there were garden centres, nature had a better way.

Animal (including humans) urine and feces are nature’s fertilizer.

Each person urinates annually about 4 kg of nitrogen, 0.4 kg of phosphorous, and nearly 1 kg of potassium; total excretion [including feces] is 4.5 kg of nitrogen, more than a half kg of phosphorous, and 1.2 kg of potassium. In an urban setting of 10 million people, this equates to 45 million kg of nitrogen, nearly 6 million kg of phosphorous, and more than 12 million kg of potassium.

That’s just the human component. The deer, bears, squirrels, birds, mice, fish, etc. contribute many times more

So for hundreds of thousands of … More

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The Casinos on Wall St., Bay St., and other cities around the World

ByDoug Anderson Economics, Money, Politics

How the wealthy keep getting richer and the rest of us are drowning

Doug Anderson

Mar 15, 2026

Since Trump launched his war on Iran a few weeks ago the stock market has gyrated from highs to lows depending – not on the price of oil but rather on the posts that Trump was putting up on his Truth Social. The market fell dramatically within minutes of the first bombs but then eased its way up over the next several hours. The actual value of oil didn’t change. The shift came from speculators. Fundamental economics tells us that prices are determined by supply and demand but the supply of oil didn’t suddenly drop because Trump posted on his Truth Social.

The oil that gets made into the gasoline at your corner gas station came out of the ground perhaps months ago, maybe even longer. It then went by pipeline or … More

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Building the Canadian Car

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Economics

We were making them up to 1965 – 60 years ago

Aug 30, 2025

Most of the people reading this weren’t even born when Canadian auto workers were producing from scratch tens of thousands of cars in Canadian assembly plants with Canadian-made parts. Even fewer will remember when their parents, or perhaps their grandparents, actually owned one.

If you came of age after the Auto Pact was signed in 1965, this is ancient history. 1965 was when our auto sector began to integrate with the American industry. Before that Canada produced thousands of cars (and trucks) – albeit in branch plants of the American big 3 – GM, Ford and Chrysler. Most the the production was identical to the American models (some of the names were changed, such as the Ford Frontenac and the Pontiac Acadian and they might have had different grilles) but the designs were were the same … More

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ICYMI – Exposing Trump’s Tariff Fraud

ByDoug Anderson Economics, International Relations

The last week and a half have been dominated by Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs. You may recall his charts that showed what they said other countries were charging the US and the lower figure (usually 1/2) that the US was going to charge them.

Except it was all a sham. After some pushback they came up with this equation.

Looks impressive doesn’t it with all those Greek letters. Except it doesn’t have anything to do with tariffs. The equation was cracked by financial journalist James Surowiecki within a few hours and later validated by several other analysts. The equation takes the the US total trade deficit with a given country (Xi – Mi) and divides it by the value of the goods said country exports to the US (Mi).  The other factors were set so they cancel out, and the delta Ti is the supposed tariff rate.… More

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Bring These $$ Home

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Economics, International Relations, Money

Trump has poked the Canadian bear and has unleashed a level of patriotism that we haven’t seen before – perhaps ever.  So while the tariffs may eventually get  withdrawn and things may seem to go back to normal we can never again leave ourselves this vulnerable. We need to harden our economy.

Ironically this situation presents Canada with some incredible opportunities. This current wave of nationalism must be harnessed.

50 years ago the government of Justin’s father Pierre, created the Canada Development Corp in order to stem the tide of foreign ownership of Canadian companies and a similar idea is needed today but for different reasons. The Canada Development Corporation was created to invest in strategic industries in order to increase Canadian ownership. The CDC had some success but the Mulroney government shut it down when they took office in the mid 80s. The problem of foreign ownership is still … More

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Media Madness

ByDoug Anderson Economics, Uncategorized

Following last week’s column on the stock market collapse, I undertook a simple piece of research to find out how significant the “bloodbath” was. I wanted to get a fix on just what proportion of the market participated in the drop in share values. Upskir

Seventy-seven million shares were traded on Black Monday. My initial guess was that that represented a pretty small proportion of the total shares on the market, say 2 – 5%.

I phoned up the Toronto Stock Exchange last Friday to find out the total number of shares listed. I was connected to stats.

They didn’t know – “Try listings.” It was clear that in the two weeks since Black Monday, I was the first person to ask them this question.

Listings said, “Try stats.”

I protested. It was suggested I talk to the supervisor in stats.

Eventually stats came up with the number 28.7 … More