Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday the country’s leaders must put Canada first and forcefully hit back against president-elect Donald Trump if he goes ahead with punishing tariffs on all of our goods while also singling out Alberta Premier Danielle Smith for her reluctance to go all-in on retaliation.
Speaking to reporters after an hours-long meeting between the 13 premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa, Ford said Canada must unite to confront Trump’s proposed economic aggression and his promise of a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian imports.
Ford said he and other premiers and Trudeau are in agreement that Canada must be prepared to use “every tool in its toolbox” to make the U.S. pay if it goes ahead with tariffs that have the potential to throw the economy into a tailspin.
Ford said Smith is focused on protecting Alberta’s oil patch.
“That’s her choice. I have a little different theory: protect your jurisdiction but country comes first, Canada’s the priority,” he said.
“He’s going full tilt at Canadians as a whole,” Ford said of Trump. “We need to be united. United we stand, divided we fall.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau respond to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith declining to sign a joint statement by the premiers about Canada’s response to Donald Trump’s tariff threat.
Smith did not come to Ottawa for the meeting and joined the discussion virtually from Panama. She did not attend the closing press conference with Trudeau and the other premiers.
She also did not sign the final communique. There was a note appended to that document stating that “the government of Alberta did not approve the joint statement.”
Smith posted on social media saying she could not go along with the Canadian plan to take on Trump because federal government officials “continue to publicly and privately float the idea of cutting off energy supply to the U.S. and imposing export tariffs on Alberta energy and other products to the United States.”
“Until these threats cease, Alberta will not be able to fully support the federal government’s plan in dealing with the threatened tariffs,” she said.
Trudeau said Canada is preparing a “robust” response to Trump if he goes ahead with the tariffs. The prime minister said there’s an outside chance Trump drops his trade threats against Canada given the possible knock-on effects to the U.S. economy.
Trudeau said any sort of retaliation will not be borne by one region of the country.
“We will be equitable and fair but we also know we will be resolute,” he said.
Trudeau suggested blocking the flow of oil and gas to the U.S. is a possibility, even if Smith is steadfastly opposed, but he stressed no decisions have been made at this point.
“We’re going to have to look at everything we can. Nothing can be off the table if the U.S. chooses to move forward with these punishing tariffs,” he said.
He praised Ford, who is currently serving as the chair of the Council of the Federation, for putting Canada first and not being parochial about protecting Ontario’s interests alone.
Below is an earlier version of this story.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that U.S. president-elect Donald Trump is intent on devastating Canada economically with his punishing tariffs and he urged the country to take a scorched earth approach against the United States in response, if necessary.
Speaking to reporters before a meeting with the other premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa, Ford said everything should be on the table as Canada prepares to retaliate against the U.S. with Trump expected to impose a tariff of up to 25 per cent on all of our goods in the coming days.
“When they attack our country, when they attack our people, when they attack the jobs of hard-working Canadians, you cannot sit back and say, ‘Keep on attacking,'” he said. “You have to hit back with every single tool in our toolbox.”
Ford, who was wearing a “Canada is not for sale” baseball hat as he entered the talks, has already said he is prepared to withhold energy exports to the U.S., which could leave some 1.5 million Americans in a bind given how reliant some states are on the province for electricity.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said if the federal government imposes an export ban on Alberta oil going to the United States as a retaliatory measure against expected Trump tariffs, it would prompt a “national unity crisis.”
“Oil and gas is owned by the provinces, principally Alberta, and we won’t stand for that,” Smith said on Monday. “I can’t predict what Albertans would do.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opens the first ministers’ meeting in Ottawa with premiers attending both in-person and virtually.
Asked about Smith’s opposition to stopping the flow of oil south to the U.S. as part of a trade war, Ford said all of the provinces must band together to exert maximum pressure on Trump and that should include the possibility of stopping oil and natural gas exports.
“These are the tools that we have. You do not negotiate through weakness — you negotiate through strength. We need to make sure that we have tough retaliatory tariffs to defend the country. Nothing is more important than the country.”
Ford said it doesn’t make sense to rule out withholding oil at this stage in the negotiations.
Oil could be a crucial bargaining chip for Canada — the country exports roughly four million barrels south to the U.S. every day. Many U.S. refineries are almost entirely dependent on heavy crude oil from Canada and any disruption to that supply could have many knock-on effects to the American economy.
In his opening remarks at this summit to craft a Canadian response to Trump, Ford said he’s a strong believer in retaliatory tariffs.
“You can’t let someone hit you in the head with a sledgehammer without hitting them back twice as hard, in my opinion,” he said.
During a news conference in Toronto alongside Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc is asked if the federal government is considering the restriction of oil from Alberta to the United States in retaliation to possible tariffs. LeBlanc says the government has to see what the U.S. does, but added that it has to be ready to deploy all necessary measures to defend the Canadian economy.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Tuesday that all exports — including oil and gas — are being considered as Canada braces for a trade war that could get ugly.
“We want to see what the American action is next week, if it comes next week,” he said. “I think we need to be ready to deploy all necessary measures.”
Tariffs would devastate Canadian economy
Canada’s response to the tariff threat is at the centre of Wednesday’s first ministers’ meeting, which the premiers requested to get a better sense of what Ottawa has planned for the weeks ahead.
Most of the 13 premiers are in the country’s capital while Smith and B.C. Premier David Eby are joining virtually.
Trudeau opened the meeting with a call for unity in the face of Trump’s aggression, urging premiers to “stand up for the national interest of Canadians.”
“We have already seen how Canadians are ferocious about standing up for our interests and sovereignty. They will be looking to us to make sure that, together, we are demonstrating that Canada is looking for that win-win,” he said.
He said today’s discussion will focus first on opportunities for partnership with the U.S. and then there will be a separate afternoon discussion about Canada’s response to the tariffs.
Despite the calls for unity, there were some notable cracks in the Team Canada approach to Trump ahead of today’s discussions.
In addition to Smith’s ongoing outright opposition to curtailing oil exports, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe signalled he’s uncomfortable with a tit-for-tat trade war.
“Canada does not do well in that environment. North Americans will not do well. Americans and Canadians will pay more for everything that we ultimately purchase. That is the first reason why we should not be considering export tariffs and taxing things that Canadians are producing,” he said.
Saskatchewan does big business with the U.S., selling natural resources like potash for fertilizer and uranium to power nuclear reactors.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey told reporters that Canada should make sure the U.S. is aware of its critical reliance on Canadian energy but not pull back on those exports just yet.
“I see energy as Canada’s queen in this game of chess,” he said. “We don’t need to expose our queen this early. The opposition needs to know that the queen exists but they don’t need to know what we’re going to do with the queen.”
Trump is set to take office on Jan. 20 and then quickly implement his campaign commitment to levy steep tariffs on imports from some countries, including Canada, to try to prompt a crackdown on illegal drugs and migrants coming into the U.S.
Economists have said the expected 25 per cent tariff would be devastating to the Canadian economy, shaving billions of dollars off of the GDP and putting some crucial industries in jeopardy.
Ford said Tuesday “it’s not going to be good” if Trump does what he’s said he will do, and as many as 500,000 people in Ontario alone could be out of a job if a broad-based tariff scheme is implemented. The government may have to spend billions of dollars in stimulus to shore up a shaky economy, he said.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai, Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok, Northwest Territories Premier R.J. Simpson, New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Ontario Premier Doug Ford speak to reporters ahead of the first ministers’ meeting in Ottawa.
To appease Trump’s demands, Ottawa has drawn up a border security plan that Trudeau is expected to share with the premiers at Wednesday’s meeting.
As part of a $1.3 billion package, Ottawa is planning to deploy more border and RCMP personnel along the 49th parallel, put more drones and Black Hawk helicopters in the sky over the border and fund the creation of some 80 new K-9 units to better search for drugs like fentanyl at land crossings, among other initiatives, LeBlanc said.
Public Safety Minister David McGuinty told reporters today Canada is also setting up new surveillance towers along the 8,891-kilometre border. The government is also acquiring new technology, such as X-rays and hand-held chemical analyzers to curb drug smuggling, McGuinty said.
If Trump isn’t satisfied with that plan and goes ahead with tariffs anyway, Canada is also preparing to fight back with possible retaliatory tariffs on everything from Florida orange juice and Kentucky bourbon to Pennsylvania steel, sources have told CBC News.
Trudeau suggested Wednesday that energy could be part of the discussion, saying oil and other resources are “extraordinarily important” to the Americans.
“It powers their jobs, their industries and their homes,” he said.
Premiers make their case to Americans
Since Trump’s election in November, many of the premiers have fanned out across the U.S. to try to convince Americans it’s a bad idea to take on Canada given the two economies are so intertwined.
A series of ads bankrolled by Ontario have been blanketing the U.S. airwaves for weeks, touting the value of a close Canada-U.S. relationship.
Trump hosted Smith at his Mar-a-Lago estate over the weekend.
Smith said they had a “friendly and constructive” conversation and she stressed that her province’s vast oil reserves are crucial to North American energy security and the continent’s gas prices.
But Smith said she got no indication that Trump is rethinking his plan to slap tariffs on Canadian goods, which she said is motivated by his animosity over the U.S. trade deficit with Canada.
That trade deficit is largely driven by strong U.S. demand for Canadian oil and natural gas, which it buys at a discount relative to world prices for those commodities.
As part of their campaign to neutralize the trade threat, the premiers have had to push back against misleading information propagated by Trump and his surrogates who have misconstrued the bilateral trade deficit data and exaggerated illegal immigrant figures.
They have also had to contend with Trump’s rhetoric about trying to annex Canada as the 51st state.
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Canadian business and labour groups are also mobilizing in the face of the Trump threat.
The newly formed Canada-U.S Trade Council (CUSTC) plans to convene regular meetings to share information and ideas for how best to approach the expected tariff war and the subsequent new NAFTA review phase.
The trade council will draw on advice from advisers including Steve Verheul, Canada’s former top trade negotiator, cross-border experts like Laura Dawson and past politicos like James Moore and Jean Charest.