{"id":180881,"date":"2026-08-24T16:13:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/180881\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T16:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:13:05","slug":"ontarios-premier-canada-should-be-ready-to-cut-electricity-critical-minerals-as-trade-woes-worsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/180881\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario’s premier: Canada should be ready to cut electricity, critical minerals as trade woes worsen"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday that Ronald Reagan would be \u201cthrowing up\u201d over President Donald Trump\u2019s trade policies and threatened to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the United States as Trump escalated the trade fight<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Ford, speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, said Trump has underestimated Canadians\u2019 willingness to endure economic pain rather than give in to U.S. pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe underestimates Canada. We\u2019re all in,\u201d Ford said. \u201cUp here, we\u2019re at a fever pitch, everyone\u2019s in for an economic war. They know they\u2019re going to have to sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump said Monday that the new 50% tariffs on Canadian automobiles, auto parts and steel would begin next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada has been ripping off the United States of America for years,\u201d Trump wrote on social media, criticizing what he called Canada\u2019s \u201cridiculously high tariffs\u201d on American farmers.<\/p>\n

In the AP interview, Ford said Trump had \u201cdeclared war, economic war against his closest friend<\/a> and ally\u201d before invoking Reagan, whose opposition to tariffs Ford previously featured in a television advertising campaign aimed at Americans.<\/p>\n

Ford noted that Trump keeps a portrait of Reagan near his desk. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d be throwing up on him from the picture if he knew what was going on, spinning around in his grave right now,\u201d Ford said. \u201cHe should maybe take that picture off the wall and move it somewhere else. Because right now, Ronald Reagan would be disgusted with President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s comments came after Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> walked away from trade negotiations with the Trump administration late Friday, saying Washington demanded too much<\/a> in exchange for tariff relief. The United States imposed 50% tariffs Saturday on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, while Carney announced dollar-for-dollar retaliation beginning Sept. 8.<\/p>\n

Ford said \u201ceverything is on the table\u201d if the dispute worsens, including cutting off electricity and critical minerals from Ontario. He also called for Canada to consider using oil and potash as leverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll cut them off,\u201d Ford said of critical minerals. \u201cYou won\u2019t get a grain of sand out of Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critical minerals are increasingly important to U.S. national security and manufacturing. The Pentagon has sought more secure supplies of minerals used in military aircraft, missiles, munitions and electronics as Washington tries to reduce reliance on China, which dominates the mining or processing of several strategically important minerals.<\/p>\n

Ford specifically cited high-grade nickel shipped to the United States and uranium refined in Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would they do without the high-grade nickel that we ship down to the U.S.?\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

Ford said Canada should consider increasingly severe retaliation if Trump continues targeting Canadian industries, including oil and potash, while Ontario could raise electricity prices or stop sending power south.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe power 1.5 million homes and businesses,\u201d Ford said. \u201cEverything\u2019s on the table. I\u2019ll do whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Trump continues trying to dismantle Canadian manufacturing, Ford said, \u201che better have a pack of batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford has used electricity as leverage before. During an earlier phase of the dispute, Ontario imposed a 25% surcharge on electricity exported to Michigan, Minnesota and New York. Trump responded by threatening to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum before both sides backed away.<\/p>\n

Ford accused Trump of seeking not simply a better trade deal but to hollow out Canadian industries and move production south.<\/p>\n

Ford said Trump wants to make Canada a vassal state. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to bleed out every single sector and bring them down to the U.S.,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

The auto sector is especially important to Ontario, the center of Canada\u2019s vehicle manufacturing industry. Plants and suppliers in Ontario are tightly integrated with factories in Michigan and other U.S. states, with parts routinely crossing the border multiple times during production.<\/p>\n

Automakers including Ford, General Motors and Stellantis operate major assembly plants in Ontario, and the wider supply chain supports tens of thousands of jobs. Trump\u2019s new threat of a 50% tariff on Canadian vehicles and parts puts that sector directly at the center of the escalating dispute.<\/p>\n

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Monday that \u201cthe only reason Canada has auto production in the first place\u201d was because of the 1960s Auto Pact, under which Canada used access to its market to encourage vehicle production north of the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he thinks the Canadian people are going to roll over and just continue buying American-made vehicles, it\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

Ford also disclosed that he had opposed the preliminary agreement Carney was considering before Canada walked away from the negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t supporting the deal,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

Ford said he was unwilling to restore American liquor to Ontario store shelves as part of an agreement and had been prepared to publicly break with the proposed deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t going to put the booze back on the shelves,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI was ready to go out there and call a press conference … and say I\u2019m not buckling over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford said he understood Washington had sought language late in the negotiations that would have restricted Canada\u2019s ability to negotiate trade agreements with other countries without U.S. approval. Carney has called that demand unacceptable and a question of Canadian sovereignty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho does he think he is?\u201d Ford said of Trump. \u201cYou gotta be kidding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s Reagan comments revived an earlier clash with Trump. Last year, Ontario paid for U.S. television advertisements featuring excerpts from a 1987 Reagan address warning that tariffs can provoke retaliation and trade wars.<\/p>\n

Trump accused Ontario of misrepresenting Reagan and abruptly ended trade negotiations with Canada. Ford later agreed to pause the campaign so talks could resume.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t respect anyone,” Ford sad. <\/p>\n

Yet despite the increasingly hostile rhetoric, Ford said Canada should remain willing to negotiate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never believe in walking away from the table,\u201d Ford said. \u201cContinue negotiating and see where we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed from Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO — Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday that Ronald Reagan would be \u201cthrowing up\u201d over President Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15535,525,17,2039,592,5855,434,5856,113,5996,218],"class_list":["post-180881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-auto-industry","tag-business","tag-canada","tag-economic-policy","tag-general-news","tag-government-policy","tag-international-trade","tag-metals-and-mining","tag-politics","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}