Staff Reports
Senator Elissa Slotkin’s Canada trip was billed as a center-left strategy session on pocketbook politics. Fine. But the timing was anything but fine for Michigan. Slotkin sat down with Prime Minister Mark Carney at a Global Progress Action summit organized by the Center for American Progress, just as Ottawa deepened trade ties with Beijing and Chinese-made electric vehicles started arriving in Canada. That coincidence deserves scrutiny, not applause.
What Slotkin did at the summit
Slotkin joined a lineup that included Prime Minister Mark Carney, Neera Tanden, and former United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The Global Progress Action summit is a CAP Action event meant to craft messaging on affordability and “how to fight the authoritarian right,” in the organizer’s blunt phrasing. There’s nothing illegal about attending a policy forum. But there is something tone-deaf about a Michigan senator learning political strategy from foreign leaders who are actively opening their markets to Chinese state‑backed industry.
Carney’s China pivot and the first Chinese EV shipments
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government quietly struck a new partnership with China earlier this year that includes a tariff‑quota allowing roughly 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into Canada at a low tariff rate. The first small shipment of Lotus Eletre SUVs from Geely was reported as the opening move. In plain English: Beijing’s cars now have a legal path into North America through Canada. Slotkin’s appearance at a summit where Carney was a star speaker came right as those shipments began. That timing is not a mere coincidence; it’s a political signal.
Why Michigan should care
Michigan’s economy runs on autos. Chinese EVs sold at subsidized prices are a threat to U.S. factories, American jobs, and local supply chains. Senators are supposed to defend their states’ industries, not quietly swap strategy tips with leaders who just opened the door to potential dumping. Slotkin can talk affordability all she wants, but her Canada trip raises the practical question: did she press Carney about supply‑chain rules, security vetting for vehicle components, or protections for U.S. and Canadian workers — or was this mainly a campaign networking stop?
National security and economic risk
There are real national security concerns with Chinese-made vehicles. Modern connected cars have cameras, microphones, and networked systems. Those components are potential intelligence vectors if supplied or controlled by adversarial firms. Bipartisan hearings in Washington have already sounded the alarm about forced joint ventures, intellectual property theft, and predatory pricing. If Senator Slotkin spent her time in Ottawa swapping slogans instead of demanding safeguards, that is a failure of judgment Michigan can’t afford.
At the end of the day, politics and optics matter. It looks bad when a U.S. senator from the heart of the auto belt takes advice from a foreign leader while that leader’s government invites cheap, state‑backed competitors into North America. Slotkin should explain what she asked Carney about the EV quota, what commitments — if any — she won for U.S. workers, and whether she sees Ottawa’s China pivot as a problem for American manufacturing and national security. Voters deserve answers, not talking points learned overseas.
