How to Save the Canadian Auto Industry
Author: Matthew Shane
Published: Oct 28, 2025
A recent video by Claus Kellerman has been circulating through Buy Canadian circles, and for good reason. Despite an overly-inflammatory title, the piece offers a particularly accessible view into the complex factors influencing the ongoing US/Canada auto sector tariff battle. More importantly, it offers a solution, and uses simple language and hard numbers to explain why the solution can work.
As Kellerman explains it: Canada exports roughly $60 billion in vehicles and parts, nearly all to the United States. As most Canadians are well-aware, that makes us uniquely vulnerable to any U.S. tariff policy designed to “reshore” production south of the border. Because of this, the U.S. doesn’t need to target Canadian auto firms directly; it only needs to set policy – tariffs – that makes it less economical for them to build their cars in Canada.
But here’s the thing: According to Kellerman, while Canada exports ~$60 billion in vehicles and parts, it imports $90 billion in vehicles and parts. So, despite the headlines, Canada is actually a net importer in the auto sector. Granted, not all of that $90 billion is imported from U.S. factories (we also import heavily from Japan, South Korea and Germany), however, as many Canadians will realize if the check the VIN number on their car, many of the cars sold in Canada have come from American factories. Thus, while the U.S. may have leverage at the tariff level, Canadians can have leverage at the consumer level.
This is the real crux of Kellerman’s argument: While it may appear that the US holds the stronger economic cards, Canadians can gain considerable leverage by using their own wallets to help ground our own trade policy. We don’t have to buy U.S.-made vehicles. We can buy cars made here, by the same global brands, in Canadian plants. By doing so, we can reward the factories that employ Canadian workers, pay Canadian taxes, and anchor supply chains here at home. If millions of Canadians redirect even a fraction of their spending toward domestically built cars, the impact will cascade through every layer of the economy, from assembly lines to parts suppliers and research teams, strengthening our industrial base and reducing the dependence that has long defined our auto relationship with the United States.
Loyal followers of The CANADA List will recognize this logic immediately. It is indeed the principle on which the platform was built: Every time a shopper chooses a Canadian-made product, whether a car assembled in Alliston, a pair of jeans sewn in Montreal, or a jar of jam produced in Prince Edward County, they contribute directly to a self-reinforcing cycle of domestic investment, innovation, and employment. That's why we track over 6,000 products sold across the Canadian marketplace, from food and furniture to fashion and pharmaceuticals, and assign each product a CANADA Score that estimates the per unit economic value that the sale of each product returns to Canada. Because the more aware Canadian consumers are of where their hard-earned dollars are going, the more effectively they can use their wallets to help support the Canadian economy.
We're thus fully on-board with Kellerman's solution, and strongy recommend that you watch his video, which outlines the logic in convincing, yet accessible terms. And when it's time to buy or lease a new vehicle, you'll find information on every major make and model - right down to an estimate of the percentage of parts made in Canada - within The Canada List.
This isn't about nationalism or nostalgia. It's about protecting the country we love. It's about ensuring that Canadian workers have good jobs, Canadian businesses can thrive, and Canadian communities can prosper. By choosing Canadian-made vehicles, we can help secure a brighter future for our auto industry and our nation as a whole.
Want to watch Kellerman's video? You can find it here: How to Save the Canadian Auto Industry - Kellerman
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