Doug Ford’s increasingly annoyed rhetoric toward Donald Trump reached a new level on Monday when the Ontario premier said the U.S. president could “kiss my ass” in response to his latest tariff threats.
Speaking on a Toronto radio station shortly after Trump posted on social media that he would bring 50 per cent tariffs against Canadian automobiles and auto parts in January, Ford offered the pithy invite about his nether regions, and then said that Canada should “go at him full steam.”
In the same interview, Ford said Canada should use “every tool in our toolbox to go after President Trump” and that “we have to make sure they feel pain.” He said he and his fellow premiers should be willing to impose export tariffs on electricity sent to the United States, and that provinces that send key inputs like oil and potash should be willing to either tariff them or withhold those supplies entirely.
Ford said such a move would cause political blowback for Trump and his Republican Party ahead of midterm elections in November.
“And all of a sudden, you’ll see going into the midterms the reactions when gas jumps one dollar a barrel in the United States,” Ford said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, while saying bluntly on the weekend that Canada had been “attacked” by its southern neighbour, has so far ruled out restrictions on energy exports as part of Canada’s planned retaliation.
The Ontario premier’s input on Canada-U.S. trade relations has been all over the map in recent days. Long an advocate of harsher retaliation against Trump’s tariff regime, Ford went publicly silent for much of last week while federal negotiators worked on what was said to be a tentative trade deal that would have avoided a new round of Trump tariffs.
It seemed possible then that Ford, who had repeatedly vowed that he would not return U.S. alcohol to the shelves of Ontario’s liquor stores unless Trump removed the tariffs that he began imposing last year, was offside with the prime minister. Ottawa’s tentative deal was said to include reduced U.S. tariffs in exchange for a number of concessions, including an end to provincial alcohol bans.
Ford said on Monday that he was never in favour of such an agreement. “I was dead against this on Wednesday, I was dead against it on Thursday and I’m still dead against (it),” he said during his radio appearance.
Over the weekend it emerged that Ford had sent Carney a letter last Monday outlining the Ontario government’s position ahead of the trade deadline.
“While we share the goal of an agreement that brings relief and certainty to workers and businesses, we must be clear that no deal is better than a bad deal that would only embolden the United States to continue seeking concession after concession,” the letter said.
Ford’s letter said Trump’s threatened tariffs, which have since come into effect, “were clearly intended to gain leverage in negotiations.”
“Canada must remain united and prepared to defend its interests,” the letter said. “We cannot allow arbitrary deadlines, shifting justifications and or escalating tariff threats to weaken our resolve.”
Ford was scheduled to meet with leaders in the Ontario steel industry in Hamilton on Monday morning.
