Politics and posturing

March 16, 2010 in Uncategorized by missygirl

Source: Globe and Mail (blog) (Original Article)


Tuesday, March 16, 2010 1:23 PM

Politics and posturing

Jeremy Cato

Toyota is in Ottawa today to play its “We’re a Canadian company” card.

Yes, yes, officially, Toyota Canada is speaking to and answering questions from the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. Ostensibly, the reason for these hearings is to get to the bottom of Toyota’s recent recall and quality issues, as well as to explore what I have in the past called Toyota’s “cozy” relationship with Transport Canada.

But what’s really going on here is politics and posturing. The Members of Parliament are playing to the television cameras, much the way politicians in the United States have been doing with Congressional hearings. Very little of substance will be determined here. But if the various MPs involved get their way, they’ll orchestrate a few sound bites designed to show they are on the job, working hard to protect the safety of Canadians. For the politicians, this is all about exposure and posturing.

For Toyota Canada, the goal is to reinforce the company’s broad strategy of positioning Toyota as not some foreign company, but a domestic auto maker and distributor.

Thus, Yoshi Inaba, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America, here in Ottawa fresh from his grilling on the U.S. Capital Hill, launched his statement by pointing out that, “Toyota started selling vehicles here over 45 years ago and built its first greenfield parts manufacturing facility for North America in British Columbia over 25 years ago.

“That was followed by a full vehicle assembly plant a few years later. In addition, Canada is currently the only country outside of Japan to build Lexus vehicles. So I have a special place in my heart for the hundreds of Toyota and Lexus dealers, thousands of sales and manufacturing associates, and of course, millions of customers here in Canada.” cheap flight Sydney to Coffs Harbour

Inaba broadly has responsibility for Canada, but …continue reading

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