{"id":191669,"date":"2018-11-29T05:09:49","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T10:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=191669"},"modified":"2018-11-29T05:09:49","modified_gmt":"2018-11-29T10:09:49","slug":"union-leaders-politicians-selling-false-hope-on-gm-premier-doug-ford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/29\/union-leaders-politicians-selling-false-hope-on-gm-premier-doug-ford\/","title":{"rendered":"Union leaders, politicians selling ‘false hope’ on GM: Premier Doug Ford"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThey’re busy picking fights and raising false hope. But in private they know the GM plant is not coming back.\u201d (File Photo<\/a>: Ford Nation\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 Union leaders and politicians who talk about saving a General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ont., are selling \u201cfalse hope,\u201d Doug Ford said Wednesday, as the leader of the union representing the affected autoworkers accused the premier of undermining efforts to fight the job cuts.<\/p>\n

Ford held a news conference after an emergency cabinet meeting on the GM closure Wednesday afternoon. The premier accused Unifor president Jerry Dias, as well as Prime Minister Justin\u00a0Trudeau\u00a0and other politicians, of \u201cgrandstanding\u201d when they pledged to fight the closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we hear any of these people talking all we hear are a bunch of powerful people grandstanding,\u201d Ford said. \u201cThey’re busy picking fights and raising false hope. But in private they know the GM plant is not coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford said the fight ahead for the 2,500 autoworkers affected by the looming plant closure will be to find new jobs, and he promised to help them with that.<\/p>\n

He said he believes GM had been contemplating the move for a long time, and speculated that \u2014 had he been premier before the June election \u2014 perhaps the closure could have been averted.<\/p>\n

\u201cGM didn’t decide this in the six months (after) Doug Ford took over,\u201d Ford said. \u201cMatter of fact, if Doug Ford was here for five years they probably wouldn’t have left because I would have lowered their taxes, lowered their hydro rates … and made it attractive for companies to stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford used the news conference to called on\u00a0Trudeau\u00a0to scrap his plan to impose a carbon tax on the provinces as a way to help spur job creation in Ontario and across the country. He called on\u00a0Trudeau, whom he will meet with at a first minister’s conference in Montreal next week, to abandon the carbon pricing plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can’t campaign for a job-killing carbon tax on Monday and sit around and wonder why manufacturing and automotive jobs are leaving on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dias fired back at Ford Wednesday evening, saying the premier’s reaction to the entire situation flies in the face of his public reputation as a fighter \u2014 and his slogan of leading a government \u201cfor the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many who portray themselves like him, as a prize fighter,\u201d he said. \u201cBut just before they get into the arena they faint. That would be him. I’m just fascinated by how weak he is on this whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dias accused Ford of being \u201cintimidated\u201d by General Motors and said his comments since the job cuts were announced have undermined efforts to fight GM’s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he’s not prepared to fight he should just be quiet and get out of the way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ontario Green party Leader Mike Schreiner said Ford is erroneously linking the closure of the GM plant in Oshawa with putting a price on pollution.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoliticizing the GM plant closure for an anti-climate crusade is irresponsible,\u201d Schreiner said. \u201cInstead of attacking the clean economy, I’m asking the premier to embrace this $26 trillion economic opportunity. I’m calling on the premier to work with stakeholders to develop an auto strategy for Ontario to lead the (electric vehicle) revolution, not lose jobs to jurisdictions who are embracing electric vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

NDP legislator Jennifer French, who represents Oshawa at Queen’s Park, said families in the community have a year to fight GM’s decision \u2014 and they plan to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never give anyone false hope but I would never give up hope,\u201d she said. \u201cThere’s a big difference. We are facing an uncertain and rocky road ahead of us. But there is always something to fight for. The premier underestimates Oshawa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin\u00a0Trudeau\u00a0said the federal government will continue to fight for the workers in Oshawa. He also defended the federal government’s carbon pricing plan as a job creator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to secure jobs for the future is to take genuine action on climate change and help our economy and our families to thrive through the transition to a lower carbon economy,\u201d he said during question period. \u201cThe members opposite have no plan and instead just try to play politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Union leaders and politicians who talk about saving a General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ont., are selling \u201cfalse …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":181799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-shawn-jeffords","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}