'Tall order to ask the average Canadian': EVs are twice as hard to sell today

Can confirm, I haven't even thought about buying an EV since I bought an EV.
"Where's my goddamn affordable electric car, Bruce?"
Truly “poor people” (to use your words) typically don’t buy a lot of new cars in the first place. People on the lower end of the income scale are the main drivers of the used vehicle market.
Incentivizing EV purchases and infrastructure ultimately helps everyone. It will bring efficiencies to the supply chain, and will drive investment into resources that should help drive prices down. At the same time, within the next 5 years or so you should see growth in the used EV market, which as more stock becomes available and used EVs become more normalized should make them more economical to purchase (as they’re already more economical to run and maintain).
More new EVs now means more used EVs down the road, which will allow people to get into a better car for less money.
- Isn’t there a big issue regarding the permanent wearing down of batteries though? Not sure anyone would want to buy a 10 y/o EV with a worn-to-hell battery that has a greatly diminished max range. And last I heard, new batteries are thousands of dollars, but maybe that’s changed?
Bicycles
- Look I definitely agree with you, never had a car and never plan on having one, and I try to promote cycling as a means of transportation as much as possible.
  That being said, just replying "bicycles" is likely to rub people the wrong way. Bikes are not a 1:1 replacement for motor vehicles. There has to be investment into public transit, especially for intercity travel, as well as investments into safer cycling infrastructure.
- If you want to get murdered by an SUV or pickup. There are very few places in Canada where you can safely commute by bike.
They aren't all Luxury cars. Short of Tesla, most EVs just have higher upfront costs and dumb people can't figure out math or make long term plans. The car may cost more cash per month for the first 5 years unless you drive 30,000km+ per year, but they're cheaper over their lifetime. Spend a little to save a little.
You can pick up a Kia Niro EV for $50k CDN or a Kia Forte for around $26k, So a $24k difference in price for a reasonably comparable car. The Niro EV uses around 15kwh per 100km, the Forte boasts a fuel economy of around 8L/100km, at $2.10 per liter and $0.145 per kwh you save about $14.63 per 100km to drive the EV. That $24k price is completely paid off at 164,000km, and the battery has a 160,000km warranty on it. You also save money on service costs, since there's no oil changes, though part of that is offset by slightly higher tire costs. Any amount you drive it past the 164,000km is just going to put more money back in your pocket.
This also assumes that gas stays at around $2.00, if it goes up to say $2.50, or even $3 over the next decade then you're going to be paying off the EV difference that much faster.
Should you buy one if your annual driving is 5000km? No, you will never make up the cost Should you buy one if you have nowhere to charge the damn thing? Also no, but maybe bug your employer to install chargers at the office Should you buy one if you drive to Alberta every other weekend? No, there are better models for road tripping.
But a large majority of people don't fall into those three categories and should absolutely be investing in an EV.
Plus, they're quite pleasant to drive. Go test drive one. Quiet, smooth, and responsive.
- Did you add in the cost of financing that 24K and tax over 5 years, plus the cost when they inevitably then flip the outstanding balance onto their line of credit because they can't afford the payments to pay out the full amount over a 5 year term? Yeah, it probably won't ever be cheaper for the average Canadians I know.
- dumb people can't figure out math or make long term plans
  Wow, a smug, sanctimonious, self-congratulatory asshole who spends thousand words making the problem just a little bit worse rather than exhibiting even just a little bit of understanding or empathy for others who are in different circumstances or come fr a different background, who also thinks some technology is also the solution to a social problem.
  Shocking!
  Try again, only this time without letting yourself believe that other people are just dumber than you. Because you sound downright mid.

Wait, you mean middle- and lower-class Canadians--who are most people--aren't buying cars?

Could it be that they can't afford them, and even if they could, they can't charge them at home because they don't own a home?

Car makers took the EV revolution as a sequel to the SUV revolution: a way to boost average margin per unit, or rather, as a way to squeeze more juice. Unfortunately, real estate investors and Galen Weston have already squeezed our collective lemons.

If ford built an electric version of the 2005-2010 Ranger I would buy it today. It's not even a new idea, they made electric Rangers around 2000 but they had lead acid batteries so the range was only 150km.

I want a PRACTICAL pickup, not a god damned $61K, 5 seat, electric minivan with 4 foot trunk.

Cargo vans are more practical than pick up trucks for 95% of uses. Modern trucks are more like status symbols than work horses.
- Totally, you can fit a hell of a lot more sheet material into a cargo van than a modern pickup. Even minivans with fold down seats have more cargo space than a Ram with 4x5.5 box.

Odd, tried to go look at an EV9 and was told there was over a year wait and no model to look at. That is even before getting into it being far more than I want to spend.

"EVs are twice as hard to sell today" says industry that has done everything except make cars with prices at $15000 or less