Don Walker stirred the Canadian auto industry in his long tenure leading Magna. Will he stay in the business?

Here’s the inside story of how a murky future for Ford’s only assembly plant in Canada set the automaker, its labor union and provincial and national governments on a course to make Oakville an EV factory.

Unifor said 85 percent of members who voted did so in favor of the contract. The deal includes a $1 billion investment in the automaker's Oshawa assembly plant. The GM ratification wraps up 2020 auto bargaining between Unifor and the Detroit 3 automakers.

Unifor President Jerry Dias said he has been in contact with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and various ministries in both governments. “I believe everyone certainly wants to be a part of the solution,” he said.

Pickups remain popular, but General Motors dealers don't have enough of them on their lots. The automaker wants to revive its historic Canadian plant to fix that.

The automaker will spend between $767 million and $997 million to retool a plant in Oshawa, Ontario, if a tentative pact is ratified by union members, with output slated to start in January 2022.

The Canadian union plans to hold a news conference at 10 a.m. ET Thursday to provide details. The two parties had agreed to talk past a strike deadline overnight.

What is Ralph Gilles' favourite vehicle project so far? Hint: It’s built in Canada.

Discussions between Unifor and GM are scheduled to resume Thursday, and the union set a strike deadline of 11:59 p.m. ET on Nov. 4. The talks will cover about 1,600 hourly workers, most of them at the St. Catharines plant.

Unifor said 78 percent of FCA voting members cast a vote in favor of the agreement during virtual ratification voting that ran from Sunday through Monday morning.

Unifor leaders urged Fiat Chrysler Automobiles workers to ratify a tentative contract that includes pay raises, changes to the new-hire pay grid and plans from the automaker to invest between $1 billion and $1.1 billion in its Windsor, Ontario, assembly plant.

Investments stemming from the tentative pact include CND$1.3 billion ($981 million) for the Windsor, Ontario, minivan plant and a new plug-in and/or all-electric vehicle, or vehicles, to be built at the factory, the union said.

Unifor President Jerry Dias, speaking Thursday morning, said the new three-year deal includes the automaker's plan to build battery-electric vehicles “and/or” plug-in hybrids at the minivan plant in Windsor, Ont.

Negotiations between the two parties, which impact about 8,400 workers in Canada, continued in Toronto. The union has aimed to secure a new product for FCA’s Windsor, Ont., assembly plant and is looking to pattern a new contract with the company off of the one it recently secured with Ford.

The two sides were “not quite where we feel we should be with this limited amount of time left on the clock,” according to a Monday Facebook post by Unifor Local 444, which represents workers at FCA’s Windsor, Ont., assembly plant.