With Canada and the United States in a trade war, Premier Doug Ford is calling on Ontario grocery stores to signal to customers which of their products are Canadian.
Ford asked stores to either work with his government or face potential legislation mandating signage in all stores across Ontario.
Ford also spoke to John Berman on CNN Tuesday morning, saying that “the market would go down faster than the U.S. bobsled team,” blaming Trump for moving the goalposts on tariff negotiations.
Hours before tariffs came into effect, Ford reiterated his threat of cutting off electricity flowing from Ontario into several U.S. states.
Ontario supplies electricity to New York, Michigan and Minnesota. Ford said in this morning’s interview that he spoke with those governors recently.
Ford also plans on recycling a number of previous actions that he was poised to take, including removing American alcohol from LCBO stores, which could amount to a net loss of $1 billion from around 3,600 products purchased from 35 different states.
Ford also went ahead and ripped up a $100 million deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink service for Northern Ontario, admitting that for someone as rich as Musk, the financial effects would be limited, but it was a “matter of principle”.
Last month, Ford joined the call with Danielle Smith urging the federal government to meet the U.S. President’s demands on border security, and to appoint a federal fentanyl czar.
Two weeks before President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, Ford’s government launched “operation deterrence” to strengthen Ontario-U.S. Border security, focused on cracking down on illegal border crossings, trafficking of drugs and guns.
Ford accused Trump of having “moved the goalposts” when it comes to tariff negotiations.