Wednesday December 11, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC
Political news by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
“This fight is coming,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford today in his capacity as the Chair of the Council of the Federation (COF), i.e. Canada’s Premiers.
He was certain that as soon as Trump is sworn in as the USA President on January 20, 2025 that the tariffs at 25% will be coming.
Ford was speaking from Queens Park (the Ontario Legislature) in Toronto after attending a virtual (Zoom) call with the Prime Minister and the other provincial and territorial premiers regarding Canada’s strategy in responding to recent threats of US tariffs as issued by US President-Elect Donald Trump.
Ford said the federal government and Premiers “need to line up everything” that is going to be done about responding to the tariffs from the US. “We need to stand united as Canadians.
“It’s extremely important that we protect our borders,” said Ford.
Ford said that Trump is being “more aggressive than in the past”.
“We won’t just sit back and roll over,” he said.”Trump is a different kind of cat to say the least,” said Ford.
He said Ontario may cut off energy to the USA if the tariff process gets out of hand.
Federal comments:
After his remarks to media, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc addressed media about the virtual meeting.
Freeland said there will be a “robust Canadian response to unjustified tariffs”. She articulated that “Canadian exports that the US relies on” will be set up with Canadian tariffs in response.
Freeland itemized critical minerals and metals as two items that would be held back from the US if push comes to shove.
LeBlanc said today’s meeting with Premiers was 1.5 hours long. He said he was “energized” by the response from the premiers, and thanked the premiers for their various outreach efforts to the US, noting Ford on Fox TV and Legault discussing tariffs with Trump last week in Paris.
There will be a shared border plan with the premiers, said LeBlanc. There will be targeted measures on tariffs and shared efforts on border security, he said.
Plan when ready:
When the federal border and tariff plan is ready it will be shared by the federal government with Canada’s premiers. Then it will be presented to the US President-elect, and then shared with Canadians.
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