Two days after wishing his counterparts “good luck” in addressing U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s threat of 25 per cent tariffs diplomatically, Ontario Premier Doug Ford now says Canada’s premiers are aligned in their approach.
“I believe, after a conversation last night, we have a unified strategy,” Ford said ahead of a summit with the heads of each province and territory in Mississauga on Monday.
“I want to stress: every jurisdiction is different across the country, from coast to coast to coast, everyone has their interests at heart, but we are unified in the message of our number one priority is secure our border, make sure we hit our two per cent NATO commitment, and then we move forward on the negotiations with the U.S.”
Ford struck a less collaborative tone on Friday when asked about the potential tariffs, which Trump has threatened to impose on both Canada and Mexico unless work is done to secure the U.S. borders. At that time, Ford doubled down on his threat to cut off Ontario-made energy to 1.5 million homes in New York, Michigan and Minnesota, even though some others premier publicly disagreed with the strategy, including Danielle Smith in Alberta and Francois Legault in Quebec.
“If it comes to Alberta or Quebec that is their choice. They believe in diplomacy, good luck,” he said at an unrelated news conference. Trump was asked about Ford’s energy threat last week, to which he said, “Well, that’s OK. That’s fine.”
Ford has also threatened to restrict the LCBO from buying American-made alcohol, stop the export of critical minerals, and cut the U.S. out of the provincial procurement process.
“I don’t want this to happen, but my number one job is to protect Ontario, Ontarians and Canadians as a whole, since we’re the largest province,” he said on Wednesday.
Ford added that he hopes he and all the premiers will travel to Washington in February following Trump’s inauguration in January.