Ontario Premier Doug Ford warned that Canada could restrict electricity, nickel, uranium and other strategic exports to the United States if President Donald Trump continues escalating tariffs, as the two countries move deeper into an economic confrontation following the collapse of trade negotiations.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is warning that Canada could use electricity, critical minerals, oil and potash as economic leverage against the United States if the widening trade confrontation with President Donald Trump continues, saying Canadians are prepared to absorb economic hardship rather than yield to Washington’s demands.
Ford made the remarks Monday as Trump announced that Canadian automobiles, auto parts and steel will face 50% U.S. tariffs beginning next year, dramatically raising the stakes for Ontario’s heavily integrated manufacturing economy.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Ford portrayed the dispute as having moved beyond an ordinary trade negotiation and into what he called an economic war between longtime allies.
“He underestimates Canada. We’re all in,” Ford said. “Up here, we’re at a fever pitch, everyone’s in for an economic war. They know they’re going to have to sacrifice.”
Trump’s latest tariff announcement came after negotiations between Washington and Ottawa collapsed late Friday.
The president said Monday that a 50% tariff would be imposed next year on Canadian-made vehicles, automotive components and steel.
“Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years,” Trump wrote on social media, while criticizing what he described as Canada’s “ridiculously high tariffs” on American farmers.
That escalation followed another round of U.S. duties that took effect Saturday, when Washington imposed 50% tariffs on approximately $20 billion worth of Canadian goods.
Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by abandoning the negotiations and announcing matching Canadian retaliation, with dollar-for-dollar tariffs scheduled to begin Sept. 8.
Ford said the confrontation reflects what he believes is a larger attempt by Trump to move Canadian industries into the United States rather than simply obtain more favorable trade terms.
“He wants to bleed out every single sector and bring them down to the U.S.,” Ford said.
Ford said he believes Trump ultimately wants Canada reduced to the status of a vassal state.
Ontario, home to the heart of Canada’s automobile manufacturing sector, would be particularly exposed to additional tariffs on vehicles and parts.
Ford, General Motors and Stellantis operate major assembly facilities in the province, while a vast network of suppliers supports tens of thousands of jobs.
The U.S. and Canadian automotive industries are also deeply interconnected. Vehicle components routinely cross the border multiple times during production before a completed automobile reaches a dealership.
The threatened 50% tariff therefore directly targets one of Ontario’s most economically important industries.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer defended Washington’s position Monday, arguing that Canadian automobile production itself was historically the product of government intervention.
“The only reason Canada has auto production in the first place” was the 1960s Auto Pact, Greer said, referring to the agreement under which Canada used access to its domestic market to encourage automakers to build vehicles north of the border.
Ford rejected the idea that Canadians would simply accept the loss of their manufacturing industry and continue purchasing U.S.-produced automobiles.
“If he thinks the Canadian people are going to roll over and just continue buying American-made vehicles, it’s not going to happen,” Ford said.
The Ontario premier also made clear that his province possesses economic pressure points of its own.
Asked how Canada should respond if Trump continues targeting Canadian industries, Ford said “everything is on the table.”
That includes critical minerals shipped from Ontario to the United States.
“I’ll cut them off,” Ford said. “You won’t get a grain of sand out of Ontario.”
The threat is potentially significant because the United States has been attempting to secure domestic and allied supplies of minerals considered essential for defense production and advanced manufacturing.
The Pentagon depends on strategically important minerals for weapons systems, military aircraft, missiles, munitions and electronics and has sought to reduce American dependence on China, which controls large portions of the mining or processing supply chain for several critical materials.
Ford specifically pointed to Ontario’s high-grade nickel exports and uranium refining capacity.
“What would they do without the high-grade nickel that we ship down to the U.S.?” Ford said.
He suggested Canada should also be prepared to use oil and potash as negotiating leverage if the confrontation deteriorates further.
Electricity represents another powerful bargaining tool.
Ontario exports substantial amounts of electrical power to the United States, and Ford said the province could increase electricity prices or stop supplying power altogether.
“We power 1.5 million homes and businesses,” Ford said. “Everything’s on the table. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
If Trump continues trying to dismantle Canadian manufacturing, Ford added, “he better have a pack of batteries.”
That threat is not entirely hypothetical.
Ontario previously imposed a 25% surcharge on electricity exported to Michigan, Minnesota and New York during an earlier confrontation with the Trump administration.
Trump responded at the time by threatening to double U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.
Both sides subsequently retreated from those measures.
Ford’s increasingly confrontational rhetoric comes after Carney ended the latest round of negotiations, saying Washington was demanding unacceptable concessions for tariff relief.
Carney said the United States introduced last-minute conditions involving Canada’s automobile industry, its trade relationships with other countries and protections for Canadian culture and the French language.
One of the most contentious demands, according to the Canadian account, involved language that would restrict Canada’s ability to negotiate trade agreements with other nations without American approval.
Carney characterized that as a matter of national sovereignty.
Ford reacted sharply to the reported condition.
“Who does he think he is?” Ford said of Trump. “You gotta be kidding.”
Ford also disclosed that he opposed the preliminary agreement Carney had been considering before the negotiations ultimately collapsed.
“I wasn’t supporting the deal,” Ford said.
One sticking point for the Ontario premier was the prospect of returning American alcoholic products to provincial store shelves as part of an accommodation with Washington.
“I wasn’t going to put the booze back on the shelves,” Ford said. “I was ready to go out there and call a press conference … and say I’m not buckling over.”
Ford also returned to a dispute involving former President Ronald Reagan, whose views on protectionism the Ontario government previously used to argue against Trump’s tariff strategy.
Last year, Ontario purchased television advertisements in the United States featuring portions of a 1987 Reagan address warning that tariffs can trigger retaliation and destructive trade wars.
Trump accused Ontario of distorting Reagan’s position and abruptly terminated trade negotiations with Canada.
Ford subsequently agreed to suspend the advertising campaign so negotiations could resume.
On Monday, he invoked Reagan again, noting that Trump keeps a portrait of the former Republican president near his desk.
Ford accused Trump of having “declared war, economic war against his closest friend and ally.”
“He’d be throwing up on him from the picture if he knew what was going on, spinning around in his grave right now,” Ford said. “He should maybe take that picture off the wall and move it somewhere else. Because right now, Ronald Reagan would be disgusted with President Trump.”
“He doesn’t respect anyone,” Ford added.
Despite the harsh rhetoric and his willingness to threaten strategically important exports, Ford said he does not believe Canada should permanently abandon negotiations with Washington.
“I never believe in walking away from the table,” Ford said. “Continue negotiating and see where we go.”
For now, however, both countries are moving toward substantially higher trade barriers.
The United States has already imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods, Canada’s dollar-for-dollar retaliation is scheduled for Sept. 8, and Trump has now threatened another 50% tariff on Canadian vehicles, automotive parts and steel beginning next year.
Ford’s warning signals that further escalation could expand the conflict beyond tariffs on manufactured products and into the cross-border flow of energy and strategic raw materials on which both economies depend.
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