Between the lines: Ford's new tune on Trump
Spicy Spotteds
Presented by Disruptors: The Innovation Era
ABOVE THE FOLD
Breaking last evening — TARIFF SURPRISE — DONALD TRUMP’s latest curveball on auto tariffs seemingly has DOUG FORD scrambling for a new script.
The Premier, who has taken a lead role and a hard stance in the simmering trade war, found himself punting to Ottawa soon after the U.S. president announced a 25-per-cent levy on all auto imports. Here’s what Ford said as Trump’s executive order came down — and why it matters.
— Ford seemed almost as surprised as the rest of us. “Well, here’s the surprise,” he told reporters in an impromptu scrum at Queen’s Park. “I honestly believe the American administration some days can’t predict what President Trump’s going to say.” Just days earlier Ford said he believed the temperature had come down after positive talks between the province and D.C. officials.
So much for that. Ford now says he’s all for retaliatory tariffs, but he wouldn’t commit to bringing back the electricity surcharge for states like Michigan and Minnesota, saying he didn’t want to hurt other Canadians.
“We have two options here — we either roll over as a country and he runs us over 15 times and gets what he wants, or we feel a little bit of pain and fight like we have never fought before. I prefer the latter.”
— Ford deferred to the feds. Is the Premier looking to hand off his Captain Canada cape to Carney? Despite enjoying a “Trump bump” in the polls, Ford is leaving it up to Ottawa to take the lead in responding to auto tariffs, which would be devastating for Ontario in particular.
Ford, who’s also this year’s chair of the Council of Federation, said he had spoken with Prime Minister MARK CARNEY and asked for an all-Premiers’ meeting, stat. Speaking of Carney…
— There was some notable name-checking happening between the PM and Premier. In his own presser following Ford, Carney mentioned the Premier a couple times, saying the two had already spoken and that Canada would respond “soon” to the “direct attack” from Trump.
Up until this moment, Ottawa had leaned pretty heavily on Ford when it comes to the tariff response. The feds praised him for his frequent cameos on U.S. cable news and for his efforts down in Washington. Federal Minister DOMINIC LeBLANC even scored an invite to the White House alongside Ford after he threatened the electricity surcharge (then backed off after that meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary HOWARD LUTNICK).
OPPO REACTS — Critics, too, are putting away their partisan knives and taking a united approach. NDP Leader MARIT STILES said she’ll be reaching out to Ford “to again offer the Opposition's full support to protect workers and jobs in the auto sector.”
“As Trump’s reckless new tariffs threaten our auto sector and thousands of workers, we are ready to stand united as Team Ontario and Team Canada to fight back with retaliatory tariffs. We won’t back down and we will take care of workers and families.”
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