Canada’s International Auto Show
TORONTO – What could be more Canadian, yet iconic and contemporary than the annual “Look at me and check me out” exercise represented by the International Auto Show, which just closed this past weekend at the Convention Centre? It very closely resembled the “rights of passage” of adolescent males when their fancy turns to… [love, I think] or some other “drive” that smites the young.
I dare say that the sleek models on display would have been enough to stimulate the imagination of anyone to fashion and realize a plan to taste the forbidden fruits tempting the break with reason and rationality common sense and price-perspective might otherwise mitigate. “Family type” cars [SUVs], just could not compete – unless they were overpriced luxury, limited editions well out of the price range of normal human beings.
From a personal point of view, I committed the ultimate transgression of youthful taste when I asked my “tour guides” (my teen-aged grandsons) why would I buy a car whose public appearance screamed “steal me, steal me”? It took me a while to restore normalcy between us, even when I offered that I might be able to afford some of those cars by the time I turned 100. They quipped, if you became interested, “they’d no longer be in style; no one would want them” – ouch!
Speaking of “what everyone wants”, I suggested we have a look at the Electric Vehicles and smart cars, self-driving autos section of the show. With a diffident roll of their eyes, and as if on cue, they said “sure, if the Club of Bikers” checking out the flashy race cars are going there”. Noted.
At last, without said escort, we got to the section where the only fully Canadian auto was on display: the Project Arrow. We will describe it in another article, but for now, suffice it to say that the model has a lot to offer. And so it is; China just negotiated a tariff- free entry of 49,000 “competitive units” for next year. My grandsons were not interested in following that line of thinking.
Here below is a photogallery from the International Auto Show (photos: @pmhe_m / Corriere Canadese); in the first four pics, the only fully Canadian auto on display: the Project Arrow
