{"id":29276,"date":"2026-05-02T16:15:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/29276\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T16:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:15:06","slug":"doug-ford-gets-degree-from-saginaw-valley-state-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/29276\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Ford gets degree from Saginaw Valley State University"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ontario Premier Doug Ford delivers a speech after receiving an honorary doctorate degree from Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan. <\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford received an honorary doctorate from a U.S. university on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Ford wore a black cap and gown as he took to the stage at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan to receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree. <\/p>\n

In a commencement speech, Ford acknowledged that the assembled graduates may be wondering why a Canadian politician was appearing before them. <\/p>\n

He said he spent years living and working in the U.S. helping build his family business and lauded \u201cmore than 200 years\u201d of co-operation between Canada and the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"\"Doug Ford Doug Ford received an honorary doctorate from a U.S. university on Saturday May 2, 2026 (CP24 photo) <\/p>\n

The university\u2019s president, George Grant Jr., called the premier a friend and thanked him for fostering strong relations in the Great Lakes region, on both sides of the border. <\/p>\n

The honorary degree from a U.S. institution comes as Ford has positioned himself as a strong advocate against American tariffs and critic of U.S. President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n

Some journalists and pundits dubbed him \u201cCaptain Canada\u201d as he took aim at the U.S. with retaliatory policies and made his case for Canada-U.S. co-operation in a series of interviews on American news networks. <\/p>\n

The premier famously pulled American liquor off LCBO shelves days after U.S. tariffs took effect and wore a \u201cCanada Is Not For Sale\u201d hat during a meeting in Ottawa amid Trump\u2019s threats to annex Canada.<\/p>\n

\"\"Doug Ford Doug Ford received an honorary doctorate from a U.S. university on Saturday May 2, 2026 (CP24 photo) <\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s anti-tariff policies also targeted Michigan, home of the university now honouring him with a degree, when he imposed a 25 per cent tariff on all electricity exports to the U.S. <\/p>\n

The tariff was suspended a day later, with Ontario collecting $260,000 from the tariff it said would impact 1.5 million homes and businesses in Michigan, Minnesota and New York.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2026.<\/p>\n

Kathryn Mannie, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario Premier Doug Ford delivers a speech after receiving an honorary doctorate degree from Saginaw Valley State University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[525,17,235,3925,290,2136],"class_list":{"0":"post-29276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-national","13":"tag-ontario-quebec"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29276","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=29276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}