I read about this yesterday and meant to post about it, but found maissonneuve is right on it.

Again, this is a story that is MORE than meets the eye.

V
HUFFIN AND PUFFIN OVER NUFFIN
by Jordan Himelfarb
www.maisonneuve.org/mediascout
August 31, 2007

OSHAWA AS RECESSION BELLWETHER?
The National, CTV News and the Star lead, while the Citizen goes inside with the slashing of 1,200 jobs at a General Motors truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario. In response to the precipitous fall in sales of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks, GM has cut production at the Oshawa plant from three shifts to two. Many of those losing their jobs live in the Whitby-Oshawa riding of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who responded somewhat defensively to news of the cuts. Though “it’s a concern because people are going to lose their jobs and I know a lot of those people,” Flaherty suggested,with the Canadian unemployment rate lower than it’s been in a generation, these newly unemployed autoworkers are sure to find work elsewhere. Canadian Autoworkers Union president Buzz Hargrove took the news with less serenity: “They shocked the living hell out of us, quite frankly.”

Analysts throughout the Big Seven blame the cuts on a stumbling American economy, and particularly the plummeting US real estate market. A detailed article in the Star isolates three primary causes of the layoffs: the US real estate crash, which has meant workers are less likely to buy pick-ups; the rising Canadian dollar, which has made Canadian exports more expensive abroad; and astronomical oil prices, which have rendered gas-guzzling trucks unaffordable for many. Liberal finance critic John McCallum posited the cutbacks as a foreboding development for the Canadian economy: “All the economists are telling me … the possibility of a recession is rising, and that’s why it’s ever more important that this government takes action and shows economic competence.” With analysts extrapolating from the trajectory of the global economy, the word “recession” is bandied about extensively in today’s sources, though no pundit is bold enough to make an outright prediction.