Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's bid to attract the planned North American Alfa Romeo factory saw him in Turin this week to meet senior officials at Fiat for face-to-face talks on luring the new plant to the Canadian province.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's bid to attract an Alfa Romeo factory to Ontario is revving into high gear. McGuinty met yesterday in Turin with senior officials at Fiat, the parent company of the famed Italian carmaker, for face-to-face talks on luring a major new plant here, reports the Toronto Star.

"The premier believes it  was a good meeting," his spokesperson Jane Almeida said from Italy. "The competition is tough, but we will continue to work with the company as they explore opportunities in North America," said Almeida.

To make his pitch, McGuinty had a private meeting with Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, an Italian-Canadian raised in Toronto. Marchionne, who attended university in Toronto and in Windsor, has turned around Fiat's fortunes and wants to increase the Italian firm's presence in North America.

While Fiat-owned Ferrari and Maserati sell high-end sports cars in Canada and the U.S., the company's mass-market products – Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia – have not been sold here for many years. That's why the company is examining the possibility of a domestic Alfa Romeo factory to build cars for North America.

The possibility of an Italian factory is a rare glimmer of good news for a beleaguered industry in Ontario. General Motors Canada announced last week it will close its Windsor transmission plant, eliminating 1,400 jobs in 2010, and last month the company announced that 1,000 workers would lose their jobs at the Oshawa truck plant in September.

Because those job losses came despite GM receiving $235 million in provincial government subsidies, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory questioned the Liberal government's auto strategy. "He's been a one-trick pony. He only knows how to give away money, as opposed to looking at the overall economic environment in Ontario," Tory said at Queen's Park. "We have a strategy so far that has been less than a complete success. When you lose more jobs than you gain you can't declare any kind of a strategy like that as an overall success," he said.

Report courtesy of the Toronto Star