lilley: ford promises to pull plug if trump escalates fight
ontario will start charging an export surcharge on electricity, but doug ford says he will cut the power if trump adds more tariffs.
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doug ford is willing to go to the mattresses to fight back against donald trump’s tariffs. ontario’s premier laid out his plan to retaliate against american tariffs including stockpiling nickel and other critical minerals, to stop the sale of american booze and eventually cutting off their electricity.
ford has been talking about cutting the sale of electricity for the last few months. now, he’s laid out how it will happen, first with a surcharge on any sales and possibly pulling the plug if more tariffs come in april.
“we want to do the first part, a 25% surcharge,” ford said tuesday.
“we have contacted the governors, senators, congresspeople. the letters are going out this afternoon to tell them that’s exactly what we’re going to do. and if they go further into april, then we’ll cut off their electricity.”
new york, michigan and minnesota are the province’s biggest american customers, but ontario can sell power as far south as florida.
what’s amazing about ford’s threat is that unlike every other canadian response to trump’s tariffs, nothing has really broken through in the media or on social media. this threat is being talked about by democrats and republicans with online influences and news outlets are sitting up and taking notice.
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the message from ford is, he isn’t bluffing and will escalate as called for.
ford said he’s asked officials for solutions on putting the 25% surcharge on electricity as soon as possible. the legislature isn’t currently sitting, and in fact due to the just-completed election, mpps can’t be sworn in until march 17 and the house won’t resume until at least the end of the month.
“we’ve asked secretary diemanuele to come up with a system, anything that we can move quicker on this,” ford said.
michelle diemanuele is the secretary of the cabinet, the highest ranking civil servant in the ontario government. she’s been tasked with coming up with ways to move on electricity and other ways for the province to respond.
“i’m highly recommending to president trump, don’t force our hand. you underestimate canadians, you’re making a massive mistake. we’re resilient, we’re proud and we’re strong and we will survive and we will continue to thrive.”
ford said more than once that trump will and should face the wrath of voters for making these moves.
“he needs to pay the price in the midterms. if i gotta go down there and knock on the doors myself, i will,” ford said.
ford said that in addition to the moves on electricity, the lcbo, the world’s largest purchaser of beverage alcohol, is no longer selling american products.
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“every year, the lcbo sells nearly $1 billion worth of u.s. wine, beer, cider, seltzers and spirits, including more than 3,600 products from 35 states. as of today, every single one of these products is off the shelves,” ford said.
on tuesday afternoon, workers at the lcbo at yonge and wellesley in toronto, just blocks from queen’s park, were packing up all the american products to send them into storage. ford said existing products will be stored until the tariffs are lifted and no further products will be ordered.
the premier also said that american companies are now barred from bidding on ontario government contracts and encouraged municipalities to do the same. in fact, ford encouraged average citizens to do the same when it comes to their own shopping.
“even if we switch our buying power just a little bit, as much as we possibly can, that the canadian people are doing, i’m seeing it here in ontario, that’s going to put pressure on the us,” ford said.
while ford said that he is willing to fight back, to take booze off the shelves and cut power, more importantly, he talked about changing the way ontario’s economy works. he called for the speeding up of permits for mines and other important projects, he called for governments at all levels to build the infrastructure we need.
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beyond the tariffs, donald trump is making a lot of moves to make the american economy more competitive. to stay in the game, canada, ontario, need to be doing the same.
fight, yes, but also pivot to unleash our own economy for success.
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