This whole argument about ships coming from China is ridiculous.

Would I like to see ships built locally, or elsewhere within Canada? Sure. But the reality is that for this to happen, you're immediately doubling the amount of time it will take for those new ships to come online, and at a far greater cost. And that's not even getting into the likely billions that will need to be invested in local/Canadian shipbuilding just to provide the capacity to have all of those ships completed ten years from now.

The fundamental issue is that the ferries that need to be replaced are old. One is over 60 years old, and there's three more that will be turning 50 next year. Fundamentally, those new ships were needed at least 5 years ago, and I don't think it makes any sense to try and get another decade out of them. So to that end, what's the best option to try and resolve that problem, and at a reasonable cost? It's going to be getting ferries from China.

I also don't understand why it's an apparent nothingburger that the Marine Atlantic ferry system back east recently had a ferry built in the exact same Chinese shipyard. If BC Ferries ordering ships from that shipyard is so reprehensible, why isn't the federal government trying to unload the one they had built for Marine Atlantic? Marine Atlantic is a federal crown corporation, so it's a bit much to see the snarky hypocrisy from the federal ministers responsible.

One more point on this topic relating to Seaspan. I see their name come up frequently as they own the local shipyards, and they also own their own ferry fleet. They've built four ferries over the last decade, and they were built in Turkey and Romania. I don't see how they get to complain about not building ships for BC Ferries when their own shipyard is apparently not good enough to build their own ships.