Tom (00:00):
Joining us now on Top Story in our spotlight interview is Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, who has staunchly opposed Trump's tariffs and promised to cut off electricity flowing from Canada if they're not permanently rescinded. Today, Ford announcing 25% tariffs on Canadian electricity flowing to New York, Minnesota, and Michigan, raising energy costs for the average home in affected areas by nearly $70 a month, and you know, energy prices are already sky-high. Premier Ford joins us now. We thank you so much for being here on Top Story. Premier Ford, I'm going to ask you a question sort of out of the blue. Why do you think President Trump picked a fight with Canada?
Premier Ford (00:39):
You know something, Tom, first of all, I start off with every interview telling the Americans, Canadians love Americans, we love the US. I've lived there 20 years and we're part of the family. And as for why President Trump is doing this, your guess is as good as mine. He ran on a mandate, Tom, to lower inflation, create jobs, look at growth, it's done the total opposite. The inflation is going up, assembly lines will shut down if he moves forward with this in the auto sector, manufacturing will close down, and the Americans will have less money in their pockets. You can't go after your largest customer, your closest friend, your closest ally in the world, and not expect a reaction. I apologize to the American people because we all know in Canada, it's not the American people. It's one person, and that's President Trump, and he'll put us in a recession if he keeps going this way.
Tom (01:41):
Well, my questions are leading that way. Are you afraid that these new tariffs you're going to impose on Canadian electricity coming out of your country into ours are going to hurt your people as well?
Premier Ford (01:52):
Well, not only electricity, I want to send more electricity down to our great friends and neighbors. I want to send more critical minerals south of the border. As China's ramping up every single day, you don't attack your friends, you attack your foes, and China's a threat, not Canada. I want to create an An-Can fortress, American-Canadian fortress. We have all the critical minerals in the world, largest deposits in the world, right across the border, and we want to send you more energy as well. We want to send you more aluminum and steel and lumber and high-grade nickel that comes out of Ontario. That's what we want to do.
Tom (02:31):
Premier Ford, you are being incredibly hospitable and I appreciate that, but you're also being incredibly tough when it comes to your electricity and what's going to happen. You threaten to cut off electricity entirely if the tariff stands. When do you plan to do that?
Premier Ford (02:46):
Well, hopefully we'll never have to do it, but it's a tool in our toolkit, and I won't hesitate to use it, as President Trump is attacking Canadian families and jobs and businesses, taking food off their table, which there's no reason to. I always say, Tom, especially the auto sector, it's been around since the 1960s. You can't unscramble that egg overnight. You have to make a larger omelet, and both countries need to make a larger omelet until both countries can be prosperous.
Tom (03:16):
The President has been afraid to put dates on the calendar. When it comes to tariffs, are you going to put a date on the calendar when it comes to Canadian electricity?
Premier Ford (03:26):
No, we're going to negotiate through strength. We'll see what the President does. He seems to change his mind every single day. Even when I talk to Republicans, governors and senators and congresswomen and men, all of them are telling me they aren't in favor of it behind closed doors. They need to get out and speak out because it's going to hurt their communities. It's going to not only hurt red states, it'll hurt blue states. It'll hurt every state in the US. If Ontario was a standalone country, we'd be the third-largest trading partner in the world. Canada is the number one customer, but we're number three in the entire world. We're number one customer to 17 states, number two to 11 others.
Tom (04:08):
Yeah. Premier, I do want to ask you the big news here in the United States today, as I'm sure you know, is the stock market, just on a downward spiral, fears of a recession. Do you think Canada is going to hit a recession before the US?
Premier Ford (04:22):
Well, you know, we have a saying in Canada, US sneezes, Canada catches a cold, and I'm a strong believer in the market when the market speaks, and we all know that as a measuring stick for the President, he has to pay attention to the market. He has to pay attention to the endless Fortune 500 CEOs that are telling him this is the wrong thing to do. Our trade is so integrated on not just auto, but on pretty well everything, and he needs to pay attention to that because it'll be a self-inflicted recession by President Trump.
Tom (05:00):
Premier, President Trump has said, part of the issue is fentanyl. The fentanyl coming in from the border, the northern border and the southern border that's killing Americans. I want to put up a stat on the screen for our viewers here. In the last fiscal year, more than 21,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the southern border, just 43 at the northern border. So this clearly isn't the issue, or at least it's not comparable to what's happening on the southern border. Do you buy the fentanyl argument?
Premier Ford (05:28):
You know, I don't buy that argument at all. It's a smokescreen. What I do buy, yes, do we have to tighten up the border? We listen, we put 10,000 personnel on the border, and I just ended up getting a report from our state government, provincial government, if I can say, that we just apprehended hundreds of kilos of cocaine coming from the southern border, endless amounts of illegal guns, illegals, and fentanyl and opioids. I can't stand drugs and I just want to do everything we can. I've had the DEA up to my office, we've talked to the US Border Patrol, Canadian Border Patrol, federal and state police on both sides of the border. It's a shared border. So yes, do we have to stop the flow of drugs? 100%. Is the problem Canada? No, it's not Canada. You look at the precursors, they're coming from China and coming in through Mexico, up through the United States, and some gets into Canada. It's unacceptable. So we need to work together.
Tom (06:31):
Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, we thank you for your time tonight.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
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