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We can be cautiously optimistic about Doug Ford’s visit to the 2019 North American International Auto Show.

Ontario’s premier is visiting Detroit to talk with auto executives while spreading the message that the province is “open for business.”

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Ford (the premier) will visit with Ford (the auto company) and other manufacturers, encouraging them to consider the province in the future, even though the biggest auto news lately in Ontario is the looming closure of GM’s Oshawa plant.

Ford says he’s not going to try to change GM’s mind on the Oshawa closing. He believes that decision was made a year ago and that it’s final.

Meanwhile, the workers’ union president, Jerry Dias, of Unifor, has said of Ford and Oshawa: “If he’s not prepared to fight, he should just be quiet and get out of the way.”

Dias might want to explain where he was while GM was planning to stop manufacturing in Oshawa and why he didn’t negotiate a better deal for workers in the event of a closure — an event not too hard to predict as at least a possibility — the last time he wrote a contract with GM.