The leader of the Progressive ‘Conservative‘ Party of Ontario (I don’t think it means what they think it means…) is at it again.

Doug Ford, the PM of the Canadian Province of Ontario, has made a habit of barking loudly, only to back down when push comes to shove.

History, therefore, would argue not to attribute too much weight to Ford’s words in that respect.

But when a legitimate political leader on America’s border starts talking about hurting Americans intentionally — that should be taken seriously.

And if you’ll stick with me… I’ll lay out my case as to why I think President Trump is doing just that.  Not for some chest-beating competition, and not even just over the critically important issues of border security and trade deficits.

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I think President Trump recognizes what is happening in Canada, right on our border, and how dangerous it will be if he doesn’t fix the once strong strategic alliance between Canada and the United States.

If you’ll recall, Ford gets his panties all in a bunch anytime President Trump starts applying pressure, or talking trade and tariffs.  (Ewww… but I’m leaving that in the story, because he deserves it.)

The Prime Minister of Ontario is so classy that he recently threatened to cut off the flow of electricity to multiple U.S. states in retaliation for President Trump’s tariffs.

Logic would argue that it would be much simpler (and ethical) to respond to the reasonable border and trade issues that President Trump was trying to highlight with that economic leverage.

But as with most Progressive mindsets, the emotional explosiveness of a situation often proves irresistible for the purpose of causing dissension among a populace, whereas LOGIC would mean admitting you’re wrong far too often.

At any rate, Ford is at it again.  And my gut tells me that President Trump is not likely to let this latest threat go as easily as he did the last time with an additional 25% slapped on top of the previous 25% tariff!

Here’s a clip of Ontario’s PM and his latest sassy comments about wanting to hurt Americans:

Somehow, I don’t see President Trump taking those words lightly.

Again — wouldn’t it be so much easier and appropriate to simply respond to the trade imbalance and border issues that President Trump is attempting to force with his tariffs… rather than try to win an unwinnable trade war with the United States?

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Then again, that Progressive mindset has to be taken in to account.  And just because they slap that ‘conservative’ label after it in their party’s name apparently doesn’t shift things towards the side of logic.

Ford also has plans to engage with other Canadian leaders to coordinate a response, including Justin Trudeau’s replacement Prime Minister Mark Carney, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he’s in full support of retaliatory tariffs after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a new 25 per cent tariff Wednesday on cross-border auto trade.

“We’re going to make sure that we inflict as much pain as possible to the American people without inflicting pain on the Canadian population,” Ford said at Queen’s Park on Wednesday.

Ford said he’s looking to speak with other premiers early next week to discuss the new round of tariffs and take a “Team Canada” approach. He will also be requesting a meeting with all Canadian CEOs and presidents of the auto sector.

“We just aren’t going to roll over. We’re going to retaliate and he’s going to feel the pain from the American people,” he said.

Ford said he spoke to Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday and will encourage him to “target American cars” in the federal government’s response.

Ford attempted to hit at President Trump’s use of the phrase ‘Liberation Day’ when referring to the April 2nd deadline when the 25% auto tariffs will take effect.

But again, he can only appeal to Canadians using those same shallow emotional triggers that American progressives are known to use — which actually lack any foundation in truth or fact:

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Here’s the full text of that post for easier readability:

WATCH: Ontario, Canada Premier Doug Ford just had another meltdown over President Trump’s 25% car tariff.

“President Trump’s calling it Liberation Day. I call it Termination Day for American workers. President Trump likes telling people you’re fired. I didn’t think he meant auto workers in the US when he said that.”

“I’m in full support of preparing retaliatory tariffs, tariff for tariff.”

When will this guy give up? He keeps puffing his rather large chest out on camera, only to fold when it counts.

One popular X account took the opportunity to point out the complete hypocritical nature of Ford’s entire stance.

He loses his mind and starts ramping up a full blown trade war when President Trump starts pushing for legitimate border and trade solutions.

But when it comes to CHINA doing exactly the same thing — and worse — that fact that Ford is only virtue signaling (again, just like American progressives) becomes painfully obvious.

That sounds ridiculous, but also seems to be spot on true when you it seems to happen so consistently.

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And why DOESN’T Ford do the same thing when China pushes on Canada even more than President Trump is?  (We’ll get to that, in a minute.)

Keep in mind, as soon as President Trump responded to Ford’s threats the last time around with a threatened increase in the auto tax… he backed down almost immediately.

Here’s the post that preceded the last time Ford tucked tail and cowered in the face of real leadership:

Here’s the full text of President Trump’s post, in case that screen shot is hard to read:

Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on “Electricity” coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th. Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA! Also, Canada pays very little for National Security, relying on the United States for military protection. We are subsidizing Canada to the tune of more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. WHY??? This cannot continue. The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!

And here was Ford’s almost immediate retreat from his electricity threats:

Here’s the Ontario PM’s politically worded (that’s code for BS) attempt at explaining why he backed down after President Trump threatened to DOUBLE the intended tariffs.

Please see a joint statement from United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and myself:

Today, United States Secretary of Commerce
@howardlutnick
and Premier of Ontario Doug Ford had a productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada.

Secretary Lutnick agreed to officially meet with Premier Ford in Washington on Thursday, March 13 alongside the United States Trade Representative to discuss a renewed USMCA ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariff deadline. In response, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25 per cent surcharge on exports of electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota.

But if you thought Trudeau’s replacement, Mark Carney, might be prepared to listen to reason… that would be wrong.

Carney is every bit the Trump-hater that Trudeau was, and maybe more so.

He is also VERY determined to ‘reimagine’ the Canadian economy based on President Trump’s tariffs — again, rather than simply responding reasonably to the border and trade issues!

And by ‘reimagine’, it certainly sounds to me like he wants to pivot away from the United States, and pivot TOWARDS other nations.

I’d bet at least a few Canadian dollars that one of those pivots will be towards CHINA.

He asserted just that sort of pivot after a cabinet meeting in Ottawa, according to the BBC:

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Canada’s old relationship with the United States, “based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over”.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa after a cabinet meeting, Carney said Canadians must “fundamentally reimagine our economy” in the face of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

He said Canada would respond with retaliatory tariffs that will have “maximum impact” on the US.

Trump announced on Wednesday he would target imported vehicles and vehicle parts with a 25% tax, stating: “This is permanent.”

Carney, the Liberal Party leader, called the original Canada-US Automotive Products Agreement signed in 1965 the most important deal in his lifetime.

“That’s finished with these tariffs,” he said in French.

He continued that Canada can sustain an auto industry with the US tariffs provided the government and business community work to “reimagine” and “retool” the industry.

Canada needs to build an economy Canadians can control, he said, and that would include rethinking it’s trade relationship with other partners.

So when Ontario PM Ford talks about discussing a cohesive response to President Trump’s tariffs with Canadian PM Mark Carney, he’s talking about someone who HATES President Trump even more than Ford does.

When Ford comes out saying Canada needs to pivot away from trade with the United States (as in the video below), the new Canadian PM is on exactly the same page:

In fact, in a separate story just after his election a few weeks ago, Carney was described specifically as being “anti-Trump”, according to the BBC:

Mark Carney’s elevation to the top job in Canada is of particular significance at this moment when his country is at the frontline of a North American trade war. He becomes the “anti-Trump” on the US president’s doorstep.

The former Bank of England governor chose to lean strongly into resisting Donald Trump’s policies at his acceptance speech. He said the US president had brought “dark days” from “a country we can no longer trust” and that he was “proud” of Canadians resisting the US “with their wallets”.

While on trade specifically Mr Carney vowed to keep the retaliatory tariffs “until Americans show us respect”, it was clear that the general threats against Canadian sovereignty are equally as important in his thinking.

Behind the scenes, Carney has been encouraging a very robust response to Mr Trump. As he told me last month in his only UK interview during his campaign to succeed current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, it was necessary to “stand up to a bully”.

He ridiculed Trump’s allegations of Canada’s involvement in fentanyl trade, and the US president’s suggestion that Canada has ripped off the US.

Here’s a larger section of PM Ford’s comments.

Notice that in his list of potential ‘options’ in responding to President Trump’s tariffs, at no point does he include the potential option of RESPONDING to the trade imbalance or border security issues!

While it’s easy to dismiss Ford’s comments as trivial, the fact is Canada figures in to the broader security reality that must be reconsidered as China’s rise creates a new paradigm of threats to global — and American — security.

The last time Ford ran his mouth, President Trump simply threatened an additional 25% tariff.

In reality, I don’t believe President Trump cares one bit about some temporary tariff on Canadian auto parts.

I believe he is looking far more strategically at the implications of Canada’s national leadership cozying up to China — the greatest national threat the United States is currently facing as a whole.

Rather than acting like an ALLY, Canada is behaving far more like an extension of the Chinese Communist Party, right on America’s doorstep.

Tariffs might be taking the lions’ share of the news bandwidth at the moment, but if the Canadian government continues behaving recklessly in their courting of relations with China over the United States, they may have more to contend with than tariffs, soon.

The threat of becoming the 51st U.S. State may be no threat at all.

President Trump may be expecting to make good on that promise, if Canada keeps pushing closer to China and farther away from the United States.

It could turn out to be the only viable strategic option taking a forward-looking approach to the next few decades, if American security and sovereignty is going to be protected in a world dominated far more by China than in past decades.

The idea of Canada somehow being absorbed into the United States may not be any more reckless or fanciful in nature than America’s reacquisition of the Panama Canal, and the planned acquisition of Greenland.

It may be the only option.  If so, my bet is that President Trump takes it — no matter what.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
 

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