EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford both said Tuesday they believe that the U.S. president is trying to destroy Canada’s economy with tariffs in order to make it easier to annex the country.
Trudeau, speaking to reporters in Ottawa Tuesday morning, said he had been holding out hope that Donald Trump’s tariff threats were just a “clever negotiating ploy,” but that has changed.
Trudeau said he now believes what Trump has said, repeatedly: “what he wants to see is a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that'll make it easier to annex us.”
Ford, speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park shortly after, said he agreed with the prime minister’s assessment. The U.S. president wants to close Ontario’s manufacturing plants and “take food off our table,” he said, and added that Canadians will respond with a “fight like we’ve never fought before.”
The American tariffs took effect Tuesday morning, adding a 25-per cent levy on Canadian exports to the United States, save for energy, which is subject to a 10-per cent tariff. In response, the Canadian federal government announced 25-per cent tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods immediately, and tariffs on another $125 billion worth of American products in 21 days.
Trudeau said the goal is to change Trump’s mind on annexation.
“I don't know what negotiations we might undertake at the moment to convince him that that's not his goal,” the prime minister said, adding that the measures announced Tuesday are intended to show how “intertwined” the two countries’ economies are and that trade barriers will make both Canadian and American families suffer.
When a country imposes tariffs on imports, it makes those products more expensive for consumers and prompts them to avoid buying them — if there are domestic or other non-tariffed alternatives. While the U.S. has imposed across-the-board tariffs on all imports from Canada, Canada’s retaliatory tariffs are meant to target specific products where there are domestic alternatives to lessen the harm to the Canadian economy.
For Ontario’s part, Ford said the LCBO will no longer sell American alcohol and Ontario will ban U.S. companies from bidding on provincial government projects. The province may escalate its response by adding a surcharge on its exports of energy and critical minerals to the U.S., or ban their export altogether, he said.
Trudeau said Canadians are already forgoing U.S.-made products and vacations down south.
“And yeah, we're probably going to keep booing the American anthem, but let me tell Americans, we're not booing you, we're not booing your teams. We're not booing your players. We're booing a policy that is designed to hurt us,” he said.
Ford took a different approach. Standing in front of Canadian and American flags, he asked members of the two countries not to boo each others’ anthems.
“My goodness. Boo the referee. Boo the players, if you want. Do not boo the American national anthem. And to my American friends, do not boo the Canadian national anthem. That's crossing the line,” he said.
He also leapt to the defence of his friend Wayne Gretzky, the Canadian-American former hockey star who has been criticized of late for his closeness to Trump.
“He's the most patriotic Canadian there is anywhere on the planet,” Ford said, adding that Gretzky was “choked up” on a recent call.
“Just give him a break,” he said.
Ford encouraged other provinces to follow his lead by withholding exports that the U.S. needs, pointing to two examples in Saskatchewan.
“Without potash down there, they don't have a farming system. And when it comes to uranium, they're using that to enrich their uranium down in the U.S. for their nuclear energy,” he said.
“Again, I do not speak for Saskatchewan or on behalf of Premier (Scott) Moe,” Ford said, but added that he encourages his prairie counterpart to ship his uranium elsewhere.
Trudeau, however, has not ruled out nor committed to using these resources as a weapon in the trade war over the premiers’ objections.
Asked about that, he said that it’s important Canadians remain united.
“That's why, whatever response, individually or collectively, we do across the country, we have to make sure that no single part of the country is carrying a greater burden or suffering any more than everyone else,” he said.
“As we go through the pain that these American tariffs will inflict on our economy, on our workplaces, on Canadian families, we will be able to say this is happening to us by the decisions of a different government,” Trudeau said.
“As American families suffer the impact of these tariffs — of this trade war with Canada — they will be saying this is happening because our own government is choosing to do it to us. That's a very different proposition.”