The Big Three

Over the next few weeks, the Big Three will be searching for public support. There will be rallies for and against giving them succour, and for once Canadians are taking an interest. Should we bail these incompetents out of their precarious position? Their leadership has been deaf and blind to the changes happening all around them for the past few years, yet they seem to have done little to adapt. Any foresight has been blinkered by self-interest, not the public interest.


Take, for instance General Motors and the Liberals. For most of the past century, they have held sway over us. GM was the giant motorcar company that produced everything the consumer wanted – big cars, small cars, trucks, SUVs, vans and speciality vehicles. GM told us what we wanted and we bought it. Similarly, the Liberals who think they are the Natural Governing party of Canada, gave us everything they wanted, telling us that they would look after all our needs. The Liberal leadership, like GM’s, was arrogant of the public needs, giving us not only the finger on occasions, but rust buckets that consumed energy as if there were no tomorrow. The leadership neither of the Liberals nor of GM seemed to be aware that there was a groundswell of people who desired to make their own choices, whether it was for a Camry or less government. As the market share drifted away, their leadership kept repeating the mistakes of the past, thinking the people were stupid and we would eventually forget their transgressions.

Consider the NDP and Chrysler. The little partners in the triumvirate, they have tried to find a niche that would attract followers. Chrysler was bailed out one by Lee Iacocca and when they tried to find a sustaining partner in Daimler, things looked promising for a while. The NDP has long sought support from Labour and when that support began to slip, they curried favour with anyone who thought they needed a hand up from a government who promised to tax the rich and give to the poor. However, both Chrysler and the NDP have lost touch with reality – Chrysler by insisting on making Hemi-powered behemoths when fuel economy was a selling point for cars while the NDP continued to rail against big business, the lifeblood of the economy. Again, they are mired in the past, heedless of a new wave of awareness that is washing over the public.

That leaves the Conservatives and Ford. The one advantage these two have over the others is that they are not quite as bankrupt, neither financially nor of ideas as the other companies. Granted that the Conservatives seem to have an Edsel at the helm right now, they still have a few good things going for them. Yes, both suffer from the same malaise as the other parties, but they have realized that it is time for a change. Because they ate GM’s dust for years, Ford did focus on their strengths – they make the only decent police car in North America, the Mustang hung on to its market long after the ‘Cuda and Camaro were put to rest, and the F 150 pickup truck remains a best seller. The Conservatives have long stood for less government and lower taxes, two favourites of the public, but they get hung up on civil rights much the way Ford thought we needed a Lincoln SUV.

Suddenly, over a period of two or three years, the economy faltered. The big three automakers were facing bankruptcy and the political parties were bankrupt of ideas. They all seemed to be focussed more on ‘self’ than the great unwashed public. Unable to accept the reality of loss of market share, the automakers tried to steam full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes. The Conservatives in minority territory did the same thing, rushing headfirst with changes as if they had a majority, regardless of any consequence. A fine mess they have us in!

When the dust settles, we may find we no longer have the Big Three but a coalition of companies and political parties that are reluctantly working together. For instance, why not keep the Chrysler mini-van plant at full production. If Ford or GM wants to market a mini-van, let Chrysler manufacture it. If GM thinks they want to use their 3.5 V6, in it, so be it, but keep the main components of the Dodge Caravan. If Ford wants a different grill, or brake pads on a lime-green mini, the production line can switch over once a week for them. In case you think this a wild idea, consider that Chrysler is already making the VW mini-van with some proprietary VW components. Canadians want public health care – why can the Cons, Libs and NDPer’s not agree on one health plan and implement it once and for all?

Why not let Ford continue to make all the police cars (they may want to drop a Chrysler Hemi under the hood instead of their oil-slurping V8) or let GM share its Volt technology with the others? How many Jeep wannabes do we need? Could we have a Taurus/Impala/300 crossover? How about the parties agreeing on provincial revenue sharing or even removing the provincial barriers to employment?

In a few years when big business comes to realize that there is a limit to growth and political parties discover they should work for the public not themselves, we may settle into an era of compromise and cooperation. In the meantime, the Big Three have a few weeks to think about their future. A sweeping change of leadership all around might be a good first step, because what we have seen in the recent past is not encouraging.